Microsoft’s mobile game shop is scheduled to launch in July

Microsoft announced at the Bloomberg Technology Summit that its mobile game store would launch in July.

Xbox president Sarah Bond said that the company’s first-party portfolio, which includes games like Candy Crush and Minecraft, will be available on the mobile shop when it launches. After that, Microsoft intends to let other publishers use the mobile shop. 

Bond declared, “We’re going to start on the web.” We are taking that action because it enables us to create an experience that is universally accessible on all devices and in all countries, regardless of closed ecosystem store regulations. From there, we plan to expand.

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The essential components of the Xbox experience will be available in addition to games, which will be part of the store. A gaming platform and shop that “goes truly across devices— where who you are, your library, your identity, and your rewards travel with you versus being locked to a single ecosystem” is what Bond claims isn’t available. 

Microsoft is making an effort to do that through the Xbox mobile store. Microsoft would offer an alternative to Apple and Google, which levy a 30% fee on sales, by launching the shop online rather than through an app. 

Microsoft has been discussing the debut of an Xbox mobile game store for some time now, and this is the official announcement. In December of last year, Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, announced that the company was in discussions with partners to launch an Xbox mobile store, which will come soon.

Microsoft first hinted at a mobile store when it revealed that it would be purchasing Activision Blizzard in 2022.  Microsoft had stated in documents that expanding Activision Blizzard’s mobile gaming business was one of the company’s main goals in acquiring the company. Activision and King’s mobile games will be part of a new “Xbox Mobile Platform,” according to Microsoft’s CMA papers from October 2022.

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Microsoft wants to offer a mobile app store option to Apple and Google in the US and internationally, despite the EU’s Digital Marketing Act (DMA) requiring the two to open their stores.