In its desire to make video games accessible to everyone, Xbox intends to soon open a mobile game store on Android and iOS.
Phil Spencer, the boss of Microsoft’s gaming branch, has in any case split a statement to this effect with the FinancialTimes.
An Xbox store is approaching on mobile…
” We want to be in a position to deliver Xbox and content from both our studios and third-party partners to any screen type so everyone can play. “, thus indicated Phil Spencer.
Since the man took the reins of Xbox, making video games accessible to the wider world has become the leitmotif of Microsoft’s gaming branch. Until then, except through the Xbox cloud gaming included in particular in the Game Pass, mobile gaming was not part of it. ” Today this policy does not include mobile devices, but we want to build a world where it is possible “, specified Phil Spencer.
To achieve such an objective, he therefore indicated to the FinancialTimes that an Xbox store on Android and iOS should see the light of day early next year… provided that other projects from the American giant bear fruit.
…but not without Activision Blizzard?
Such a concept is not in itself a novelty out of nowhere. The project for a mobile Xbox store had indeed been revealed by Microsoft thanks to documents sent to the British competition authority last year. This operation was intended to indicate to the entity that a certain takeover of Activision Blizzard would play a crucial role in the opening of this store.
Phil Spencer has also insisted with the FinancialTimes that the existence of an Xbox store on Android and iOS depends very much on the fate of this extravagant $69 billion takeover. This is still mainly in the hands of the American and British competition authorities. The European Commission would be inclined to authorize the takeover unconditionally.
Also on the side of the European Union, the regulation on electronic markets requires platforms like iOS to open up to other mobile shops. Apple is also in the process of complying with this regulation before the deadline of March 2024. Phil Spencer specified that adapting the Xbox and Game Pass applications to Android and iOS would fall under the order of “ trivial “. What is much less is that the decisive takeover of Activision Blizzard is fully decided by early 2024.
Source : FinancialTimes
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