The mobile gaming landscape is arguably the fastest growing industry in the world of gaming at the moment. With many of the biggest developers and companies making moves in this industry, Xbox has announced an ambitious new project that's set to shake up the mobile game app store scene.
In 2022, after Microsoft's game-changing acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the software giant hinted at their plans to create a 'next-generation game store.'
In an interview a year later, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer stated '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' and made it clear that this would apply for the mobile platform.
For many, this entire set of events was big news. In a mobile game store market dominated by the likes of the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, another competitor offering new games and exclusive content would be a huge move for the quickly-growing mobile games industry.
Now, in 2024, Microsoft's long-awaited dream has just become a reality with the official announcement that the Xbox mobile gaming store will be released soon.
Xbox's Mobile Gaming Store Will Be Launched Later This Year
President of Xbox at Microsoft, Sarah Bond, stated that Xbox's mobile gaming store will be launched in July.
Sarah Bond, @Microsoft's Xbox president, announced at #BloombergTech that the company will launch its own mobile game store in July, creating an alternative to Apple and Google's app stores pic.twitter.com/hj6eLtsGfl
— Bloomberg Live (@BloombergLive) May 9, 2024
A key caveat to this monumental release is that the store will be available on the web as, according to Bond, this will make it more accessible to players across all countries and devices 'independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores.' She further stated that this model will be expanded upon in the future although it's still unclear how this will manifest to be a strong competitor against rival stores.
With the store's eagerly-anticipated release in the coming months, it's time to ask the big question: What exactly does Xbox's mobile gaming store offer players?
What Will Xbox's Mobile Gaming Store Bring To Mobile?
Xbox's main selling point about its upcoming mobile game store is that it will offer a 'cross-platform gaming experience' centered around mobile gamers. They believe there is a void in the current app store landscape when it comes to connecting players with games they truly want to play.
Microsoft's first-party portfolio of games will be available upon the store's launch. This will include the likes of Call of Duty: Mobile, Candy Crush, and Minecraft.
Shortly after, Microsoft will offer this capability to third-party partners. There is no clear schedule for when this could take place.
Xbox also aims to create an experience that 'goes truly across devices', with their store being capable of sharing 'your library, your identity, your rewards' to whichever device you are on.
While all of this sounds promising, we must recognize that this is quite the ambitious project from Xbox. The Google Play Store and Apple App Store are the most popular app stores for mobile users by far. The success of Xbox's mobile game store will solely depend on how they expand the store to become a more native choice for players and what benefits they plan on offering them to make that switch. Only time will tell what happens next