According to the Xbox boss, Microsoft's mobile gaming shop may launch in 2024

 

According to Phil Spencer, Microsoft is getting ready to provide an Xbox shop for iOS and Android as early as next year. In an interview with the Financial Times, the president of the business' gaming section revealed the timetable and noted that the strategy depends on authorities accepting Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Spencer told the site, "We want to be able to provide Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen that anyone would want to play. "We can't accomplish it with mobile devices right now, but we want to prepare for a day when we believe such devices will be accessible."

In regulatory documents it submitted to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last year, Microsoft first acknowledged that it was developing an Xbox shop for mobile devices. The computer giant did not give a timetable for the idea at the time, simply stating that the proposed merger between it and Activision Blizzard would be crucial. On Monday, Spencer was more forthright. These are the types of things that we are preparing for, he continued, referring to the upcoming Digital Markets Act. "I consider it a tremendous opportunity."

Major platforms that the European Commission classifies as "gatekeepers" must make their devices accessible to rival app stores under the Digital Markets Acts (DMA). According to a Bloomberg article from last autumn, Apple was already hard at work getting iOS ready to comply with the law before its March 2024 deadline. Companies that the EU designates as gatekeepers will be given the opportunity to contest the classification, which might delay the implementation of the rule. However, there is no assurance that Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard will close before the new regulations apply to Apple and Google due to challenges from the Federal Trade Commission and CMA, a point Spencer appeared to recognise in an interview with the Financial Times. Nonetheless, he claimed that Microsoft could adjust in a "very easy" manner.