Microsoft plans its own app store on Android and iOS for 2024

Xbox wants to expand to mobile after Activision Blizzard takeover

Microsoft plans on opening its own app store on Android and iOS devices in 2024, Phil Spencer, the company’s President of Gaming, has stated in the Financial Times. Though its own mobile phones were not a success on the market, Microsoft hopes to make it big in mobile games after the proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been approved.

We often overlook the fact that the Call of Duty maker includes a third company, which is making more money than Activision and Blizzard combined: Candy Crush creator King. If Microsoft gets the go-ahead from regulators for the takeover of Activision Blizzard King, it will command some of the most recognizable and lucrative IP on the mobile gaming market.

Naturally, the company wants to use this advantage to expand into the mobile space with its own store, thus avoiding having to share revenue with Apple or Google. Both tech giants will have to open their ecosystems to third-party stores in March 2024 under the Digital Markets Act of the European Union, which paves the way for Microsoft’s expansion plans.

"We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play. Today, we can't do that on mobile devices but we want to build towards a world that we think will be coming where those devices are opened up,” Spencer said in an interview FT conducted with him ahead of GDC 2023.

These plans could also facilitate mobile games playing a larger role on Xbox Game Pass, further boosting the content included in Microsoft’s gaming subscription service. Microsoft and Apple have been bickering over the latter’s stance on cloud gaming for a while now, with Microsoft accusing the iPhone maker of restricting the competition on its platform.

Ironically, the UK’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA), which is currently proving to be one of the biggest hurdles for Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, called Apple out regarding this topic last year and started an investigation.

Microsoft has been making some headway towards gaining approval of its proposed takeover of the gaming giant, reportedly swaying the EU position thanks to contractual agreements with Nintendo, NVIDIA, Boosteroid, and Ubitus about Call of Duty and cloud gaming. The CMA has recently received feedback from third parties about its provisional report, which overwhelmingly favored Microsoft’s plans to be approved.