As soon as next year, Google Play Store and Apple iOS App Store may face serious competition from Microsoft in the mobile gaming market with its own Xbox mobile marketplace.
Xbox head Phil Spencer recently had an interview with the Financial Times and shared that parent company Microsoft aims to make Xbox content available across platforms, whether it’s developed in-house or by third-party partners.
As for how this could be achieved, it depends on the Digital Markets Act. It’s a European Union regulation seeking fair and transparent operation of large online platforms, such as app marketplaces. It will expose so-called digital gatekeepers, or companies abusing their power to block third-party firms from participating in online sales.
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Once companies are identified as gatekeepers, they will then need to comply with DMA by March 6, 2024. This could be the earliest date that Microsoft could launch its Xbox mobile games store, assuming no appeals are submitted to delay the legislation.
Spencer further said to FT that they want to build a world where devices are opened up, as opposed to the current walled-garden approach today that companies like Apple enforce for security and other reasons.
Reports of a potential Xbox mobile gaming store first emerged in October, when Microsoft revealed its mobile intentions in a filing the company submitted to the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK.