Microsoft plans for Xbox-branded mobile store, competes with Google and Apple

Microsoft is planning to bring the taste of Xbox to your smartphones. At a time when Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is being investigated by UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the company has revealed that it plans to build an Xbox-branded game store that will include mobile games from Activison and King (the maker of the addictive Candy Crush series). Also Read – Google unveils Android 13 Go Edition for budget smartphones: Check details

Microsoft hasn’t made a formal announcement in this regard yet. Instead, this revelation was a part of the response that Microsoft submitted to the CMA explaining how the acquisition would not harm the competition, which includes content from companies like Sony, Google, Nvidia and Amazon. Also Read – Digital art gives a wide reach, brings ideas together more quickly and efficiently: Sudeepti Tucker

The company in its detailed response to CMA said that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard would enable the company to create a game store, especially for gaming apps, that would operate across devices and help the company to scale up its Xbox Store to mobile devices among other things. Also Read – WhatsApp introduces Status reaction, Undo and more features for iOS users

“The Transaction will improve Microsoft’s ability to create a next generation game store which operates across a range of devices, including mobile as a result of the addition of Activision Blizzard’s content.17 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,” Microsoft wrote in a response to CMA.

Microsoft also said that this game store will be based on its Open App Store Principles, which it announced earlier this year and will apply to the next generation game store that the company launches in future. These principles will ensure that Microsoft’s game store is open to all developers as long as they meet some reasonable requirements, all apps are treated fairly without unreasonable preferencing or ranking of its own apps or that of its business partners over others and that developers are able to communicate with their customers directly through their apps for “legitimate business purposes, such as pricing terms and product or service offerings” among other things.

Additionally, Microsoft said that this game store would not take away from Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store as that would require a major shift on part of the users. “Shifting consumers away from the Google Play Store and App Store on mobile devices will, however, require a major shift in consumer behaviour. Microsoft hopes that by offering well-known and popular content, gamers will be more inclined to try something new,” the company added.

While company didn’t share a timeline for the launch of its Xbox-branded game store, it is safe to assume that Microsoft won’t launch the game store until its Activision Blizzard deal closes. BGR