Microsoft To Launch Web-based Play Store Alternative In July

Sarah Bond, President of Xbox at Microsoft, shared information on the company’s upcoming mobile gaming store during the Bloomberg Technology Summit. Microsoft will launch the game store in July, for both Android and iOS smartphones.

However, as you’d expect, it won’t be a native app you can install on your smartphone. Rather, it’ll be a web-based game store accessible from a browser on an Android or iOS device. Sarah says that doing so would make it “accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what, independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores.”

This could be because Apple, unlike Google, only allows the loading of third-party app stores onto iOS in the EU. Had Microsoft released a native app for its gaming store, users outside of the EU would not have been able to use it. A web store solves this problem. But again, Apple also doesn’t support side-loading apps outside of the EU, so it isn’t clear yet how Microsoft would work around that. Perhaps, it could allow users to play games over the cloud, similar to its Xbox Cloud Gaming service.

Only Microsoft’s Own Games to Be Available During the Launch

According to Sarah Bond, Microsoft will launch its game store starting with its games only. Thanks to Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, it now has some popular titles under it, like Candy Crush Saga, Call of Duty: Mobile, Diablo Immortal, etc., along with Minecraft, which it acquired several years back. The store will be open to other publishers later. When it does, it could benefit both developers and the users.

Microsoft’s Mobile Game Store Could Benefit Both Users and Publishers

Google and Apple both currently charge approximately 30% fees from developers on apps and in-app purchases. If Microsoft, similar to Epic Games, asks for lower fees, publishers will be happy to make their titles available on the game store. Not only would it save developers some money, but they could also leverage it to attract more users and transactions by offering discounts.

Besides, developers and users will also benefit from the “cross-platform gaming-centric mobile experience”, which hasn’t been there on smartphones before. The Epic Game Store will offer a similar experience, but its launch is scheduled towards the end of this year.

That said, we now have two prominent players preparing for the launch of mobile game stores. Both Microsoft and Epic Games are going to have a tough time attracting users from the ever-popular stores of Apple and Google, but offering unique incentives or features could help them.