Summary
Microsoftis officially entering the mobile gaming store scene this summer. With the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard-King formalized, the legal precedent of Epic vs. Apple settled, and the European Union disrupting the digital market, Microsoft and Xbox believe the time is right to vie for a piece of the market.
The current mobile gaming store ecosystem is primarily dominated by Apple’s App Store, Google Play, and their respective fees and terms, so there’s not a ton of options when it comes to where consumers purchase mobile games. Some may recall Epic Games' 2021 anti-monopoly lawsuit against Apple, which concluded in early 2024 without making too much headway against this alleged monopoly. But nowMicrosoftis entering the fray with a new strategy.
Sarah Bond, President of Xbox,announced at the Bloomberg Tech Summitthat Xbox’s mobile gaming store will arrive in July of this year. Bond explained that what will make Xbox’s mobile store unique is its initial accessibility “on the web,” as opposed toApple or Google’s app-based mobile stores. The store will initially feature deals on in-game items for first-party Xbox games and will eventually open the selection to outside publishers. Bond went on to further explain that the decision to start with a web-based store “allows [Xbox] to have it be an experience that’s accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what, independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores.”
Bond specifically mentionedMicrosoft’s controversial acquisition of Activision-Blizzard-King, finalized in October 2023, as one of the reasons for the move to mobile. With this purchase, games likeCandy Crush Saga,Call of Duty Mobile, andHearthstoneall fall under Microsoft’s first-party portfolio. And it’s these games, along with the powerhouse titleMinecraft, that Microsoft intends to put in the new Xbox store first but hopes to get other publishers in the store as soon as it can. “We want to make sure that we start and we scale with our own IP first,” Bond explained. “That allows us to make sure that the experience we bring partners into really builds on all the quality and experience we have as a team.”
Bond seemed to imply that despite the store being web-based initially, it would eventually be accessible through other platforms, saying that once the experience is stable across all devices and countries, it will “extend from there.” Bond did not elaborate on what this extension would entail, nor what it would mean forthe future of the current Microsoft Store.
An Xbox Mobile Store Has Been in the Works for a While
Xbox CEO Phil Spencer, in an interview with the Financial Times last year, specifically mentioned the idea of creating an Xbox mobile market, citing theEuropean Union’s Digital Markets Act. The act, which largely came into force in May 2023, aims to make the European digital market fairer by identifying “gatekeepers,” i.e., the largest companies operating in the mobile industry. Sarah Bond’s reference to the purchase of ABK seems to affirm the motive for purchasing the conglomeration, and as the EU begins to make progress on the Digital Markets Act, it would appear that the conditions are aligning for Microsoft and Xbox to make their own push into creating a rival for Apple and Google. Time will tell what the arrival of the Xbox Mobile Store will mean for the Microsoft Store at large, as neitherMicrosoftnor Xbox have released any further details.
