By Tom Warren, senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, consoles and technology. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012. Microsoft is building an Xbox mobile store to bring games directly to mobile devices, challenging Apple and Google. The software giant first hinted at a “next-gen” store it would “build for games” earlier this year, but has now quietly revealed the main points of its plans in documents filed with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. United (CMA). The CMA is currently investigating the $68. 7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and has asked Microsoft for context. In its documents, Microsoft states that one of the main motivations for this acquisition is to help strengthen its presence in mobile gaming. Its plans for this area are said to include the creation of an Xbox mobile game platform and store. Here’s what the company says in the filing: The transaction will enhance Microsoft’s ability to create a next-generation game store that works across a variety of devices, adding mobile devices by incorporating Activision’s Blizzard content. Leveraging Activision Blizzard’s existing gaming communities, Xbox will look to expand the Xbox Store to mobile devices, bringing gamers to a new Xbox Mobile platform. However, moving consumers away from the Google Play Store and App Store on mobile devices will require a primary reset in behavior. Microsoft hopes that by providing well-known and popular content, players will be more susceptible to checking out anything new. Call of Duty: Mobile and Candy Crush Saga are two incredibly popular mobile games published through Activision and King respectively, and Microsoft could benefit from them. names to help create a game store that can compete with Google Play and the App Store. Given Apple’s policies blocking third-party app point-of-sale components on iOS, it’s hard to believe Microsoft will compete in iPhones anytime soon. But obviously that doesn’t stop you from considering an Xbox mobile app store. Microsoft’s popularity for mobile gaming push comes as the company increasingly positions Xbox Cloud Gaming as an option for mobile gaming on emerging handheld devices. Microsoft was quick to support Xbox Cloud Gaming on Valve’s Steam Deck, followed by a partnership with Logitech and Razer for its cloud gaming-focused portable devices. This means that a push toward mobile gaming can happen on multiple fronts, not just phones and tablets. Beyond the hardware, there are also many benefits at play here. Games are among the most popular downloads on mobile devices and drive in-app purchases in app stores. Clearly Microsoft needs a piece of this pie. Watch how the company describes the opportunity: The transaction provides Microsoft with a significant presence in the mobile gaming sector. Profits from mobile games from the King department and names like Call of Duty: Mobile, along with ancillary profits, accounted for more than a portion of Activision Blizzard’s profits in the first part of 2022. Mobile consumers account for about 3 quarters of its MAU. Array Microsoft does not currently have a significant presence in mobile gaming and the transaction will bring much-needed expertise in mobile game development, market positioning and advertising. Activision Blizzard will be able to bring the lessons learned from creating and publishing mobile games to Xbox Game Studios. However, the CMA has lightly discussed Microsoft’s possible involvement in mobile gaming as part of its investigation and is instead focusing heavily on console gaming, which Microsoft says makes up a growing percentage of the overall position. From the market. diminished. In a chart posted on Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisitions site, the company outlines the total gaming market position as worth $165 billion in 2020, with consoles accounting for $33 billion (20%), PCs with 40 billion dollars (24%) and mobile games with 85 dollars. billion (51%). However, building a smart, lucky rival to the Google Play Store or App Store would be a huge challenge, and Microsoft will have to court third-party component developers if it hopes to make progress. The company appears to be laying the groundwork here by committing to a set of principles that would allow developers to freely run their own retail app stores on its Xbox mobile platform and offer their own payment systems to process in-app purchases. This is an advantage that Apple is surely not offering. (These commitments do not yet fully apply to Xbox consoles, but Microsoft said earlier this year that it is “committed to filling the gap on the remaining principles over time. “) Microsoft says those same principles will also apply in the future. Xbox cell phone store. which may be enough to attract developers to the platform. One company that might be particularly interested is Epic Games, which has teamed up with Microsoft in recent years in the fight against Apple’s App Store policies. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney welcomed Microsoft’s first hints of an open app store style in 2019, before a giant war between Epic and Apple a year later that saw Fortnite disappear from iPhones . Epic argued that Apple should allow third-party payment systems in its App Store or even allow competing app stores to work on iPhones and iPads. Epic eventually asked Microsoft to help it defend its case in court, and Microsoft increased the pressure on Apple with significant changes to the Windows Store days before Epic’s lawsuit against Apple last year. Epic didn’t win its legal argument and Fortnite is still back on the iPhone. But Epic turned to Microsoft to bring Fortnite to Xbox Cloud Gaming earlier this year after court documents revealed that Epic blocked the game on Xbox Cloud Gaming in the first place because the service was “competitive with our PC services. ” This closer partnership between the companies could help convince Epic to sign up early for Microsoft’s mobile gaming plans. Epic has already followed Samsung’s Galaxy Store on Android, and having Fortnite and Call of Duty: Mobile on Microsoft’s Xbox mobile game store would be a smart start in a difficult task facing Apple and Google. However, a potential major obstacle to Microsoft’s mobile gaming ambitions may simply be its control of Call of Duty on mobile devices and consoles. Microsoft has had good luck with Xbox Game Pass and has made it clear that it needs to bring Activision games to the service. Regulators are now assessing the effect this would have on competition. Xbox Game Pass is also at the center of the ongoing wars between Microsoft and Sony over Call of Duty. Sony argues that Microsoft could simply remove Call of Duty from PlayStation entirely, while Microsoft says it wouldn’t make commercial sense. This war of words has become a public war of words between Sony’s PlayStation leader and Microsoft’s Xbox leader, but the genuine clash is taking place behind closed doors. Microsoft now says that keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation is a “commercial imperative for the Xbox business and the economics of the deal” and that it would jeopardize profits if it removed Call of Duty from Sony consoles. “Microsoft has made it clear that it relies on profits from the distribution of Activision Blizzard games on Sony PlayStation. ” But even if Call of Duty continues on PlayStation, Sony could lose big profits if Microsoft brings the name to Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft has claimed in the past that Sony was paying for “blocking rights” to keep certain games out of Xbox Game. Pass and now claims that is the case with Call of Duty. “The agreement between Activision Blizzard and Sony involves restrictions on Activision Blizzard’s ability to position Call of Duty names in Game Pass for several years,” Microsoft says in its documents. The CMA and other regulators now have the unenviable task of fixing the problems. those arguments between Sony and Microsoft and find out precisely how this agreement may harm consumers or competition. Microsoft still hopes to close this deal before spring 2023, but there’s a strong chance we’ll have months of wars ahead of us, as well as the opportunity to gain rare information, like with those cellular plans, about the industry’s secret ambitions. of video games. / Sign up for Verge Deals to receive daily deals on products we’ve tested delivered to your inbox. The Verge is a network painting by vox media © 2023 Vox Media, LLC. All rights reserved
spring