With Google Play Games already available in Europe for you to download Android games to your Windows PC, Microsoft has now kicked off a own mobile games store. With this move, they want to get on par with the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
[La IA de ChatGPT revoluciona la ofimática: todo lo que has de saber sobre Microsoft 365 Copilot]
Waiting for its acquisition of Activison Blizzard to clear up
Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard last year was one of the steps the company took to fulfill a series of plans. One of them is to create your own mobile game application, but it must clarify all the problems that Microsoft has in acquiring it.
This all has to do with the new guidelines Apple and Google must adhere to to open their mobile apps and gaming platforms from March 2024 under the EU Digital Markets Act.
And it is that regulators in the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom they are very worried by the potential impact of Microsoft with the takeover of the developers in charge of Call of Duty, one of the most popular franchises in the video game industry.
Indeed, Sony, creator of the PlayStation, is one of those who oppose the final takeover of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. Phil Spencer, Executive Director of Microsoft Gaming, in an interview claims that the closing of this purchase could give a big boost to the competition facing “the largest smartphone gaming platform”, where Apple and Google sometimes operate almost side by side for what could be called a duopoly.
Under Europe’s new digital marketplace law, Apple and Google should be designated as “gatekeepers” so they can change the rules they maintain with apps distributed to Android and iPhone devices.
Microsoft’s mobile game store
Spencer clarifies that launching your own app and game store it would be almost trivialbecause it would be very easy to adapt the Xbox and Game Pass applications to sell games and subscriptions on mobile devices.
Of course, one of Microsoft’s biggest shortcomings has been mobile games, but with the purchase of Activision Blizzard, the picture changes completely. Call of Duty Mobile, Diablo Immortal and Candy Crush Saga are the strongholds of the American company to assert its own Xbox Mobile Store.
In other words, these titles would be part of their store in order to attract players to their downloads and subscriptions. The rest would be a breeze for this company in no time.
Of course, for this to become a reality, the Activision Blizzard takeover has to come to an end, and for that Microsoft has made a commitment to the European Commission to make their content available on other gaming cloud providers, allaying concerns in this regard.
Which means, via Ars Technica, that these three so-called games could be downloaded from other stores, but yes, from time to time. Already with its own mobile games store open, Microsoft would have in its hands to directly compete with this duopoly made up of Apple and Google.
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