Microsoft is preparing to launch a new app store for mobile games on iPhone and Android, as soon as the US competition authority has validated its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The new rules enacted by the European Parliament and the Council will force Apple and Google to open up their respective operating systems (iOS and Android) to other app stores owned by competitors. These rules are grouped in the digital market law (or DMA), which will come into force at the beginning of 2024. In fact, Apple will be the main actor affected, Google already allows the presence of alternative application stores on Android.
“Any Screen”
After this announcement, Microsoft made sure to express itself through its director of the video game branch, Phil Spencer: “We want to be able to offer Xbox, its content and that of our external partners, on any screen where someone could play,” reports the financial times.
Currently in negotiations with competition regulators in the US, UK and Europe regarding the acquisition of the developer of the famous franchise. obligationsPhil Spencer said that it would be difficult to predict the exact launch date of the Microsoft app store. He adds that the current lack of Microsoft-branded mobile games was “a hole in our capabilities” that the Activision Blizzard acquisition had to fill.
Smartphone gaming giants like mobile call of duty, immortal devil AND candy Crush Sagait would be “crucially important” to rebalance the scales and allow the future Xbox mobile store to compete with Apple and Google.
Microsoft had attempted a first approach to the mobile market at the end of 2020 with the Xcloud project, which allowed certain Xbox games to be played on smartphones. An initiative that, however, had been blocked by Apple, due to the particularly restrictive rules of use of the App Store.
Source: BFM TV
