Microsoft plans a mobile game store to compete with Apple and Google

Microsoft is preparing to launch a new app store for games on iPhone and Android smartphones as soon as next year if its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is approved by regulators, according to the head of Xbox business.

New rules that require Apple and Google to open up their mobile platforms to app stores owned and operated by other companies are expected to come into effect from March 2024 under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in an interview the week before the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

“Today, we can’t do that on mobile devices but we want to build towards a world that we think will come where these devices open up.”

Microsoft is fighting with regulators in the US, Europe and the UK, all of which have raised concerns about the potential impact on competition from an Xbox console owner buying a developer. Call of duty, one of the most popular gaming franchises in the world. PlayStation manufacturer Sony was an outspoken opponent of the deal.

Still, Spencer argues, the deal could boost competition in what he calls “the biggest platform people play on” — smartphones — as Apple and Google currently operate what some antitrust authorities have called a “duopoly” over the distribution of games and other apps.

“The next Digital Markets Act – these are the things we’re planning,” he said. “I think it’s a great opportunity.”

Under the DMA, the EU is expected to designate Apple and Google as “gatekeepers,” requiring them to change the rules governing how apps are distributed on iPhones and Android devices. However, major tech companies could appeal the designation, delaying implementation beyond the next March deadline.

While he acknowledged that it was difficult to predict exactly when Microsoft would be able to launch its own store, Spencer said it would be “very trivial” for Microsoft to adapt the Xbox and Game Pass apps to sell games and subscriptions on mobile devices. He added that Microsoft’s current lack of mobile gaming was a “clear hole in our capability” that it needed Activision Blizzard to fill.

Hit titles like Call of Duty MobileAnd Immortal Diablo And Candy Crush SagaIn addition to more currently in development, it will be “hugely important” in drawing gamers away from the Apple and Google marketplaces to the Xbox Mobile Store, he said.

Microsoft and Apple have argued for years about how the software giant’s cloud-based gaming service, which is part of Xbox Game Pass, will work on iPhones.

Microsoft argued that Apple’s App Store rules restrict its ability to offer cloud gaming through a single app that runs natively on the iPhone, forcing users to access the service via a web browser, which results in lower performance.

Apple has denied that it blocks cloud gaming apps, but App Store rules require providers to list each game in the App Store individually. Similar to the restrictions on Amazon’s Kindle e-reader app, Apple doesn’t allow individual game purchases from the storefront within native apps.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority announced in November that it was investigating Apple’s stance on cloud gaming, after studying the mobile ecosystem market.

But the CMA also proved a significant hurdle for Microsoft to complete its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, after the agency said last month that the deal raised concerns about multiple competition that could only be resolved by a portion of its blockbuster production. Call of duty franchise.

Microsoft argued that abstraction Call of duty It would undermine the rationale for the deal, which was first announced in January last year. It is trying to convince the CMA that the proposed behavioral remedies, such as licensure obligations Call of duty To rival consoles and cloud services, like its recent deals with Nintendo and Nvidia, would satisfy its fears.

In Brussels, Microsoft made “binding commitments” to the European Commission to make Activision Blizzard content available to competing cloud game providers, as part of a deal to allay competition concerns with EU regulators, people with direct knowledge of the discussions said.

The concessions were a sign that regulators in Brussels had dropped major concerns to narrow their investigation into cloud gaming, those people said.

Additional reporting by Javier Espinosa in Brussels