Microsoft appears to be ramping up its mobile gaming efforts, revealing plans to launch an Xbox mobile game store in July.
While we already know that an Xbox mobile game store has been in the works for quite some time, this new July release timeline comes from a recent interview with Xbox president Sarah Bond at the Bloomberg Technology Summit.
Bond went on to express a desire to bring Microsoft’s “own first-party portfolio” to the store, including “games like Candy Crush” and “games like Minecraft” in addition to third-party titles from partners.
It seems clear that the Xbox mobile game store will be part of the wider Xbox ecosystem, as Bond described it as “a true cross-platform gaming centric mobile experience.” Presumably, this means some form of integration with existing Xbox game libraries and compatibility with popular features like Microsoft Rewards and Xbox achievements.
Interestingly, the store will first be made available as a web application rather than a traditional app. “We’re going to start on the web,” Bond explained. “We’re doing that because that really allows us to have it be an experience that’s accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what and independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores.”
This sounds quite similar to the existing Xbox Cloud Gaming service, which can be accessed through mobile phone web browsers. Although the intention is clearly to compete with the Android Google Play Store and iOS App Store, it’s difficult to imagine the Xbox mobile game store finding much success without a dedicated presence on the home screen.
Still, with recent European Union (EU) regulation prompting Apple to allow third-party iOS app stores for the first time in the region it seems very plausible that we will see one released down the line. Perhaps the allure of big properties like Candy Crush and Minecraft will prove enough to persuade a number of fans to make the jump in the meantime.