Xbox app store could come to mobiles in 2024

Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of gaming, has told the Financial Times Microsoft would like to launch Xbox-branded mobile gaming app stores on both Android and iOS — ideally as soon as next year.

Google and Apple have not allowed such stores until now. But, the upcoming legislation of the European Union will change this. In March 2024, the Digital Markets Act will come into effect. It requires mobile tech companies to allow other companies to access their apps. “I think it’s a huge opportunity,” Spencer told the FT.

“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,” Spencer said, reiterating the line on platform-agnostic gaming he has consistently held for some years now. “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.”

Spencer said he couldn’t predict when such a store might go live; it’s possible Apple and Google can delay the European legislation by filing appeals against it. He suggested that Microsoft could set up such stores quickly if the rules allow it. The company already publishes XboxAnd Game Pass apps that would be “pretty trivial” to adapt into storefronts, Spencer said.

Spencer spoke about the importance of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard to his ambition to build app stores. Acknowledging mobile games as an “obvious hole in our capability,” he cited Candy Crush, Call of Duty Mobile and Diablo Immortal as games that would be “critically important” to the success of this strategy.

Although the purchase would be a boon for Microsoft, these games are already thriving in the iOS and Android platforms. Microsoft’s own rationale is that it wouldn’t make business sense for it to withdraw Call of Duty games from PlayStation, and surely the same applies here.

Spencer may be spinning an argument that is friendly to regulators in favor of Activision Blizzard’s deal. Google and Apple’s “duopoly” in this space has long been an irritant to antitrust regulators, and Spencer is positioning Microsoft as being on their side in this instance — helping to increase competition in the mobile gaming space rather than stifle it. There’s a suggestion that, should the deal not be allowed to close, Microsoft might not feel motivated to push on with its own app store.

While Spencer has a point, he’s being somewhat disingenuous. If Google and Apple are forced to open up their platforms, the real prize for Microsoft isn’t an app store where it can sell Candy CrushDirectly, however, turning smartphones into portals to its Game Pass subscription or Cloud Gaming service.

Android supports Xbox Cloud Gaming via an app. However, iOS allows it to be performed through a browser. Apple claims it supports cloud gaming, but it blocks it due to technicalities that require each game to be separately listed on the app store. Microsoft is certain to want to put its entire Game Pass catalog easily in the palm of your hand — whether it is allowed to complete its deal or not.