A recent report suggests that Microsoft plans to launch its Xbox mobile gaming store as early as next year. The tech giant has been looking to grow its footprint in the gaming sector over the past few years, with its strategies mainly taking the form of high-profile acquisitions to its Xbox Game Pass service. Now, it appears Microsoft is aiming to expand even further with mobile.
Of course, the company's gaming ambitions aren't a secret. Its slate of acquisitions during the last five years alone includes the likes of Playground Games, Ninja Theory, and ZeniMax Media, with the Bethesda owner coming at a $7.5 billion price tag for Microsoft. Alongside these acquisitions, the tech giant has also found success via its Xbox Game Pass subscription as it helped propel the Xbox platform's monthly active userbase to over 120 million during the last quarter. With mobile gaming seemingly the next frontier for Xbox, it appears the company is prepping up to gain ground in the space.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Xbox chief Phil Spencer reaffirmed Microsoft's plans to launch an Xbox-branded mobile store on Android and iOS stores. He pointed out to EU's upcoming Digital Markets Act, which aims to force players like Apple and Google to change how apps will be distributed on the ecosystems. This will come into law by May 2, 2023, and identified digital gatekeepers via the Act will need to comply by March 6, 2024. This means Microsoft could technically debut its Xbox app store on iOS and Android as early as March 2024.
However, it's worth noting that much of this depends on the approved acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Microsoft has publicly acknowledged that one of its biggest motivations for buying Activision is the company's existing reach in the mobile gaming space, particularly with hits like Call of Duty on mobile and Candy Crush. More recently, Microsoft signed off 10-year deals with cloud gaming platforms Ubitus, Boosteroid, and Nvidia, as well as Nintendo in a bid to convince regulators over the Activision acquisition.
Unsurprisingly, its efforts didn't stop at signing long-term deals with other gaming platforms. Microsoft also offered a compromise to the EU on the Activision Blizzard acquisition in what appears to be a final push to get the go-ahead. As of now, the EU is reportedly set to approve the Activision purchase while the FTC already sued to block the deal. In any case, it will be some time until things reach the final stage, though a potential Xbox-branded mobile app store in 2024 looks to be an intriguing prospect, to say the least.
Source: Financial Times (via VGC)