Microsoft To Release Its Mobile Games Store By Next Year

Microsoft is looking to enter the mobile games market by creating its own native app store. The heavily anticipated Xbox mobile games store could make its way into the competing market by next year if regulators finalize the nearly $70 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition. Speaking to Financial Times, Phil Spencer has clarified the plans surrounding the new store that will arrive on iOS and Android platforms.

We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play,” said Phil Spencer. 

A massive shift in rules for Google and Apple will compel them to allow their respective mobile platforms to open up for app stores created by other companies after concerns about “gatekeeping.” The new legislation will go live on March 2024, provided no appeal is made against the change, which will ease the tough market for competitors.

Thus, the head of the Xbox brand wants to delve deep into the mobile games market next year due to the restrictions being lifted from the most dominant app stores. “The Digital Markets Act that’s coming — those are the kinds of things that we are planning for,” Phil further articulated, “I think it’s a huge opportunity.” The act will end the gatekeeping in the industry and will open up prominent stores for other opponents.

Phil Spencer wants to take advantage of the chance to make leeway for the Xbox Brand to finally dock in the mobile games market. “Today, we can’t do that on mobile devices but we want to build towards a world that we think will be coming where those devices are opened up.” Theoretically, we can expect the new mobile games store to arrive soon after the new law rectifies the market.

The Activision Blizzard deal is much more to Microsoft than just acquiring Call of Duty IPs, as the studio already has a great standing in the mobile games market. Mixed with its subsidiaries, sensational titles like Call of Duty Mobile, Diablo Immortal, and Candy Crush would fall under the Xbox umbrella after the deal goes through. These games will play a significant role in diverting the market from Google Play Store and Apple Store for Microsoft.

The Microsoft mobile games store has been in the brewer since early last year, and it has been quietly developing amidst the heat surrounding the Activision Blizzard deal. In CMA filings discovered in October last year, the giant conglomerate has called it “a next generation game store.” The company wants to implement it “across a range of devices, including mobile as a result of the addition of Activision Blizzard’s content.”

The document further says that it wants to divert the consumers away from the current goliaths, Google Play Store, and Apple Store, by bringing a “major shift.” The Xbox brand wants to achieve this goal by delivering well-known and popular games in the mobile games market.

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