Microsoft launched its mobile game store in July

Microsoft has just announced that it will launch its own mobile game store next July at the Bloomberg Technology Summit event on Thursday.

Sarah Bond, director of Xbox, said the company will offer its exclusive titles, including Candy Crush and Minecraft, as soon as the store opens. After that, Microsoft plans to expand the mobile game store for other publishers to participate.

“We’ll start on the web,” Bond said. “This allows us to create experiences that are accessible on any device, any country, regardless of the policies of closed ecosystem stores. We will then expand further from this platform. “

By launching a web store, instead of a separate app, Microsoft will create an alternative to Apple and Google, which charge a 30% fee on sales.

This official announcement comes after a long time of Microsoft hinting at the launch of the Xbox mobile game store. Last December, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said the company was in discussions with partners about launching an Xbox mobile game store and emphasized that the store would launch soon.

Microsoft first hinted at a mobile store in 2022 when it announced a deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. In the filing, Microsoft said one of the main reasons it wanted to acquire Activision Blizzard was to build a presence in the mobile gaming sector. In October 2022, Microsoft’s filing with the CMA revealed that it plans to create a new “Xbox Mobile Platform”, including mobile games from Activision and King.

While the EU’s Digital Marketing Act (DMA) forced Apple and Google to open up their mobile app stores, Microsoft is looking to provide an alternative for both outside the EU and USA.