Microsoft said at the Bloomberg Technology Summit on Thursday that it will open its own mobile game shop in July.
The company’s first-party portfolio, which includes games like Candy Crush and Minecraft, will be available on the mobile shop when it launches, according to Xbox president Sarah Bond. After that, Microsoft intends to let other publishers use the mobile shop.
“We’re going to start on the web,” Bond said. “And we’re doing that because that really allows us to have it be an experience that’s accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what, independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores, and then we’re going to extend from there.”
Microsoft would offer an alternative to Apple and Google, who 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. The CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, stated in December of last year that the business was in talks with partners to open an Xbox mobile store and that it will happen shortly.
When Microsoft announced that it would be acquiring Activision Blizzard in 2022, it made the first indications of a mobile store. 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.
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.