Microsoft will open its own mobile game store in July, the company said at the Bloomberg Technology Summit on Thursday.
That will be supplemented by a bit more aggressive move: Xbox president Sarah Bond said the firm plans to bring its first-party portfolio -- including titles such as Candy Crush and Minecraft -- to the mobile store at launch. Microsoft will then throw open the mobile store to other publishers.
We are 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.
By opening it on the web, rather than as an app, Microsoft would offer an alternative to Apple and Google, which siphon off 30% on all sales.
The official announcement comes as Microsoft has been talking about launching an Xbox mobile gaming store for quite some time now. Last December, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said the company was in discussions with partners about launching an Xbox mobile store, and noted that it would arrive sooner than later.
Microsoft first spoke about a mobile store back in 2022, during a deal to buy Activision Blizzard. And at the time, Microsoft said in filings that one of the key reasons it wanted to buy Activision Blizzard was to expand its capabilities and build out its mobile gaming presence. In October 2022, Microsoft's filings with the CMA suggested it aimed to create a new "Xbox Mobile Platform" that houses mobile games by Activision and King.
The new Digital Marketing Act by the EU will compel Apple and Google to open their mobile app stores to the public. Meanwhile, Microsoft is eager to give the public an alternative, first outside of the two within the United States and beyond its bounds in the EU.