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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. will launch its own mobile game store on the internet in July, creating an alternative to Apple Inc. and Google’s app stores and their fees.

The store will launch with Microsoft’s own games, including Candy Crush Saga, Xbox President Sarah Bond said Thursday at the Bloomberg Technology Summit. Later, Microsoft will open the store to other publishers.

Bond says the store is launching on the web, versus an app, so it’s “accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what, independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores.”

Apple and Google dominate the app stores where game developers release titles, charging an approximate 30% fee on sales. In late 2023, Microsoft gaming head Phil Spencer shared that the company is in talks with partners to launch its own Xbox app store.

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act, which went into effect this year, freed tech companies to start their own direct-to-consumer web stores and avoid Apple and Google’s fees. In early May, some TikTok users reported seeing links to a TikTok web store, where they could purchase TikTok coins at a discount.

Microsoft lagged behind game industry competitors in entering the $90 billion mobile gaming market. Now, the company’s Xbox unit is poised to make a big splash after its $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard, owner of the Candy Crush and Call of Duty. Candy Crush has been downloaded 5 billion times since its 2012 debut and generated $20 billion in revenue.

Tech giants have been battling over the future of digital storefronts for mobile games since 2020, when Fortnite maker Epic Games Inc. launched its Project Liberty campaign.

The company announced users would get a 20% discount buying Fortnite currency on its own website. In response, Apple and Google deleted Fortnite from their app stores. Epic filed lawsuits against both tech giants, alleging illegal monopolistic control over their mobile phone ecosystems.

Microsoft to Launch Mobile Game Store, Vying With Apple, Google - BNN Bloomberg

Microsoft Corp. will launch its own mobile game store on the internet in July, creating an alternative to Apple Inc. and Google’s app stores and their fees.

www.bnnbloomberg.ca

 

[OverHeat]

I hope it crash and burn

 

[adamsapple]

I hope it thrives and booms

 

[StereoVsn]

Phil to Apple and Google:

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Crikey, having those numbers side by side really puts things into perspective. MS' studio buying spree cost them almost as much as the entire mobile gaming market's annual revenue.

 

[Topher]

I hope it thrives and booms

We know

 

[T-0800]

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Just fucking lay low. What are you doing, MS?

 

[semiconscious]

what? no 'game pass for phones'?...

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

MS not Xbox?

 

[Dacvak]

I’m sort of torn.

On one hand, competition is always good for consumers in both the short and long term. So, cool.

On the other hand, Microsoft has been a bunch of slobknobbers lately and can go fuck themselves.

 

[Chiggs]

With Sarah Bond behind it, success is guaranteed!

 

[XXL]

Xbox must have mobile presence if it's going to thrive, Phil Spencer says

Xbox boss Phil Spencer talks to Eurogamer about the platform's reason for buying Activision Blizzard, and its mobile gaming ambitions.

www.eurogamer.net

The reason we're in the acquisition discussion with Activision Blizzard King is around their mobile capability

 

[demigod]

The hits just keep coming for MS.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

She looks like she doesn't even know what reality she's in

 

[GHG]

Are they fucking off to mobile?

Jokes aside, with their standard of studio management and their attitude towards games I genuinely think it will suit them better.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Xbox must have mobile presence if it's going to thrive, Phil Spencer says

Xbox boss Phil Spencer talks to Eurogamer about the platform's reason for buying Activision Blizzard, and its mobile gaming ambitions.

www.eurogamer.net

The reason we're in the acquisition discussion with Activision Blizzard King is around their mobile capability

The absurdity of it is that they basically just bought a revenue stream. King has shown a complete inability to innovate for the last decade+ and instead just churns out the same couple of franchises over and over. While those franchises obviously do well, there's only so much you can extract from them before King's utility falls off a cliff.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Yeah, my friends... At this rate, I don't even know if Xbox is going to be around by the end of the year.

 

[adamsapple]

Yeah, my friends... At this rate, I don't even know if Xbox is going to be around by the end of the year.

 

[Woopah]

Pretty much what you've been talking about Mibu no ookami

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

you know what they say:

 

[XXL]

The absurdity of it is that they basically just bought a revenue stream. King has shown a complete inability to innovate for the last decade+ and instead just churns out the same couple of franchises over and over. While those franchises obviously do well, there's only so much you can extract from them before King's utility falls off a cliff.

Sounds like a match made in Heaven.

Just replace King with Xbox and re-read what you just wrote.

The absurdity of it is that they basically just bought a revenue stream. Xbox has shown a complete inability to innovate for the last decade+ and instead just churns out the same couple of franchises over and over. While those franchises obviously do well, there's only so much you can extract from them before Xbox's utility falls off a cliff.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Sounds like a match made in Heaven.

Just replace King with Xbox and re-read what you just wrote.

Lol, that's actually a really good point.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

I hope it thrives and booms

Empowering creators

 

[SJRB]

Just like every other Microsoft service it will be half assed, feel bad and not be worth the time.

 

[Fabieter]

Hopefully I dont need an extra mobile xbox account.

 

[adamsapple]

Empowering creators

 

[T-Cake]

So in non-EU countries, the games will only be playable through Safari/Chrome or something? I can't see how you can download apps on to iOS from a web page (except in EU).

 

[Optimus Lime]

Why is everything an 'experience' now?

It's a store, you stupid bitch. There's nothing exciting or innovative about it. And it will fail, because you and your cronies are cretins who have had a decade of straight losses in everything you touch.

 

[Lions Gate]

why the fuck someone spend money on unoffical 3rd party store when you have google play or apple store ? it's stupid

 

[GHG]

why the fuck someone spend money on unoffical 3rd party store when you have google play or apple store ? it's stupid

Greed.

In summary they only want to participate if they see a path forward to domination.

Can't do that if they are reliant on other people's stores and they are sharing revenue elsewhere.

 

[feynoob]

I guess MS is trying to kill xbox

 

[SmokedMeat]

I give it two years and then they’ll pull the plug.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

 

[demigod]

These cunts pushed so hard for this during the Epic trial, watch them take more than a 12% cut from developers.

 

[SneakersSO]

This is gonna be an incredible trainwreck. They are spending so much on this too.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

I hope it crash and burn

Yea nobody should get to succeed against Apple.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

This is gonna be an incredible trainwreck. They are spending so much on this too.

this seems like another desperate move

 

[rapid32.5]

I can't believe it took so long, but will it work flawlessly across all devices? That is the question.

 

[THE DUCK]

I’m sort of torn.

On one hand, competition is always good for consumers in both the short and long term. So, cool.

On the other hand, Microsoft has been a bunch of slobknobbers lately and can go fuck themselves.

As opposed to Apple who have been nothing but open minded and kind to consumers......oh wait.......

 

[Banjo64]

Yea nobody should get to succeed against Apple.

NeoGAF community note: Microsoft are currently the most valuable company in the world by market cap, above Apple in second place.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

I guess MS is trying to kill xbox

is that David Jaffe?

 

[Pejo]

If it works across any Windows device it could be a huge potential existing market of consumers which could drive developers into looking at it. If it doesn't and it's only an app store you have to side load on your phone like Amazon, it's dead in the water.

Current Microsoft drama aside, they could do well from this >>>>IF<<<< they don't fuck it up.

 

[VideoGameEnjoyer]

Now this is a company with their finger on the pulse of the industry.

 

[feynoob]

is that David Jaffe?

That is Matt booty in the future.

 

[SubZero_Wins]

is that David Jaffe?

After he saw what 989 Studios did to Twisted Metal.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

"Microsoft Corp. will launch its own mobile game store on the internet in July"

Microsoft cannot even get OTHER outlets to announce shit for them properly.

This sentence is just awful Bloomberg!
God, it's so bad.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Pretty much what you've been talking about Mibu no ookami

Thanks for the shout out. I try to be pretty effective in my analysis, so it's always appreciated when I'm not only proven right, but someone acknowledges it.

Microsoft didn't spend 80 billion dollars on Xbox, they spent 80 billion dollars trying to jump back into the mobile market after the failure of the Windows Phone and Windows Mobile OS. They discovered that they didn't really need the OS though, they just need the app store. They read the regulatory tea leaves, and they pulled the trigger on ABK and Bethesda.

If successful they stand to make tens of billions of dollars if not hundreds of billions of dollars annually through their own store. At some point regulators will push to remove the apple and playstore as default stores on phones. In the meantime though, Microsoft will work with telephony carriers to get their store pre-installed.

 

[NickFire]

If they want to trade Flight Sim with PSVR2 compatibility (full game, and controller option) then I’ll pretend this is exciting. If no trade than meh.

 

[MayauMiao]

Given Microsoft's reputation, I wouldn't touch it.

It will be either too expensive or abandoned in mere months.