Today's Windows 10 event gives Microsoft a chance to hype gaming's most popular platform

Microsoft today gathers press from around the world for the second part of a stretched-out unveiling for its latest operating system: Windows 10.

While the day's events will include a cross-the-board look at Windows 10, could also be a historic moment for Microsoft's relationship with gamers.

The company's dwindling interest in, or at least attention to, gaming on Windows seems to date back to the launch of the original Xbox. There have been attempts over the years to try and bring to Windows the sort of codified success that Xbox has had. But they've all failed.

Games for Windows and Games for Windows Live were the most notable both in its aspirations and its ultimate failure.

In previous launches of new operating systems, Microsoft has tried to bring together the game industry to support a system for better understanding if a computer could run a game, the company has tweaked its online store to make it gaming focused and even dabbled with cross-play between Xbox and Windows.

But the previous attempts have never taken off.

While today's presentation likely won't be a deep dive into something as granular as a storefront for selling titles, it will likely address a plethora of concerns.

Chief among those will have to be the previously fractured relationship between Valve and Microsoft. With the roll-out of Windows 8, Valve CEO Gabe Newell actively campaigned against what he called the operating system's "closed garden" store and the use of tiles in the interface.

With the surging popularity of Valve's own Steam storefront, Microsoft has to get the company and its outspoken leader onboard with its new operating system.

It's likely, given the push back Microsoft ran into with its last operating system, that the company has done a fair amount of outreach to all game developers, preparing them for this new environment.

Today's event will also include some stage time for Phil Spencer, the recently promoted head of all things gaming — both Xbox and PC — at Microsoft.

Last March, Spencer promised that a new focus on PC gaming was coming.

"A renewed focus on Windows and PC gaming inside Microsoft is definitely happening," he said at the time. "You will see more focus from us — not to go compete with what Valve has done, but because we also understand as the platform holder it's important for us to invest in the platform in a real way. We're fundamentally committed to that."

With a number of new studios on board, including Minecraft's Mojang, it's likely the event will see at least discussion of some of the new games coming to Windows 10 and what sort of support the industry as a whole will give the new operating system.

Great to have Xbox/Gaming in a Windows event today. Make sure you stay watching until the end of show, cool stuff there. #Windows10

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 21, 2015

Spencer could discuss cross-play or cross-buy between the Xbox One and Windows 10 and cloud saves for PC gaming. He could also talk about universal apps, that is programs that can be created once and work on not just, say, a Windows machine, but also Microsoft's phone and the Xbox One. Microsoft is also likely to talk about the guts of its new operating system, showing off an upgraded DirectX and the ability to handle much graphics.

Long-held rumors of Microsoft's experiments with virtual reality could come to fruition today, as the company uses the massive reach of this particular stage to show off its own efforts in a realm that Sony and Facebook, among others, are making headways in.

Expect also news of Microsoft's phones and the programs, and perhaps games, that run on them.

Today isn't just a chance for Microsoft to show the world what the next operating system will look like and how people will interact with their computers in the near future, it's a chance to show that the company learned from their previous mistakes.