Microsoft will open its own mobile game store in July, the company announced on Bloomberg Technology Summit on Thursday.
Xbox president Sarah Bond shared that the company plans to bring its first-party portfolio, which includes titles like Candy Crush and Minecraft, to the mobile store at launch. Next, Microsoft plans to open up the mobile store to other publishers.
“We’ll start on the web,” Bond said. “And we’re doing that because that really allows us to have an experience that’s accessible across all devices, across all countries, regardless of the ecosystem’s closed-store policies, and then we’ll expand from there.”
By launching the store online, as opposed to an app, Microsoft would present an alternative to Apple and Google, which charge a 30 percent fee on sales.
The official announcement comes as Microsoft has been talking about launching an Xbox mobile game store for some time. Last December, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said the company was in discussions with partners about launching an Xbox mobile store and noted that it would arrive soon.
Microsoft first hinted at a mobile store in 2022 when it announced a deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. Microsoft had said filings that one of the major reasons it wanted to acquire Activision Blizzard was to help grow its mobile gaming presence. In October 2022, Microsoft’s CMA filings revealed that it planned to create a new “Xbox Mobile Platform” that would include mobile games from Activision and King.
While the EU’s Digital Marketing Act (DMA) forces Apple and Google to open up their mobile app stores, Microsoft is trying to offer an alternative to both in the United States and beyond the EU.
