Microsoft will launch its version of a mobile gaming store in July. Xbox President Sarah Bond revealed the store will be available on the internet and will not be a specific app like the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, making it available to a wider audience from the start.
Microsoft mobile gaming store will launch with first-party games
Bond told Bloomberg that the mobile gaming store will launch with a selection of Microsoft’s own mobile games, including Minecraft and Candy Crush, the latter of which was recently acquired alongside Activision Blizzard. Only after the store has launched will it be opened up to other publishers “so that they can also take advantage of it and have a true cross-platform gaming-centric mobile experience.”
The store will launch on the internet so that it can be “accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what, independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores.” However, Bond then said that it would “extend from there,” so there is always a chance for a dedicated store app in the future.
Launching a mobile gaming store is something that Microsoft has been aiming to do for quite a while. One of the main reasons why Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard was to acquire its expertise in the mobile market, but delays in the approval of the acquisition meant that the launch of the store is also later than the company had hoped.
Of course, this isn’t Microsoft’s first foray into the consumer mobile market. The ill-fated Windows Phone Store was launched in 2010 on select devices and sold games, music, video content, podcasts, and apps. The Phone Store was merged into the Windows Store in 2015 with the launch of Windows 10 Mobile. While the Windows Store continues to sell PC games and apps, support for its mobile gaming dwindled and Xbox features were discontinued in 2022.
