By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.
Rumor: Microsoft Plans To Launch Xbox Mobile Store As Soon As Next Year
16.10.2023 - 11:07 / gameranx.com / Tom Warren / Next Year
Tom Warren has gone on record that Microsoft will be launching their mobile store very, very soon.
As shared on Reddit by Zombienerd300, Microsoft plans to launch their mobile store as early as next year. That would be rapid deployment on plans that they had hinted at very early on when they revealed plans to acquire Activision Blizzard King. In a manner of speaking, this was a long time coming.
Talk about this stems all the way back in2019, when we had reported on Jez Corden’s rumor that Microsoft would be launching a new cross development platform code named XDK. This platform would have worked with Apple, Android, and even Nintendo Switch. Of course, this one didn’t turn out to be true, but it certainly looked like it was what Microsoft wanted to do, even that long ago.
We got more tangible information of Microsoft’s mobile plans in the documents they submitted to the CMA in the course of their investigation of their Activision deal. That document said:
“Building on Activision Blizzard’s existing communities of gamers, Xbox will seek to scale the Xbox Store to mobile, attracting gamers to a new Xbox Mobile Platform.”
What made Microsoft confident enough to let these plans go public? The EU’s Digital Markets Act.
As explained in this Reuters briefer, the rules of the Digital Markets Act will require companies like Apple and Android, and also Amazon, to change the way their platforms work. As explicitly stated here:
“Apple and Google will be forced to provide space for third-party app stores on their respective iOS and Android devices.”
This change actually goes much further than Google’s current policies. While some consumers know that Google enabled users to ‘sideload’ apps, we should also acknowledge that many Android OEMs have started adding their own third party stores on their devices, such as Samsung.
EU’s change will make it so that the Android ROM will allow you to install Samsung’s store, and any other store you want. Apple, which didn’t allow for any of this, will also be forced to do the same.
The reason the EU can force these companies to follow them isn’t some extraordinary overreach of their rules. It’s something more simple; if they don’t comply, EU can make them leave their highly lucrative, and profitable market. While companies like Apple hate being forced to change like this, they will do it because losing the EU is even less profitable.
We had reported on when the Digital Markets Act was essentially approved December of last year, but the EU also confirmed that it would take them time to work out its implementation. Microsoft has obviously been following this this whole time, as their plans for an Xbox Mobile Store are planned to launch when the EU will enable them.
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