Microsoft Intends to Launch a “Next Generation” Xbox Mobile Store to Compete Against Google and Apple

Microsoft has become an increasingly platform agnostic company in recent years, and even though Xbox obviously remains central to the company’s strategy where gaming is concerned, it’s clear that it has plans to expand in other areas as well. Mobile gaming is a space that many major publishers have been eyeing, from Activision and EA to Sony and others, and of course, Microsoft is among them.

Interestingly, it seems like the Redmond-based company also plans on launching a mobile gaming store to compete against the likes of the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. In a recent official filing published by the UK’s CMA, where Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard is currently being scrutinized, the company wrote that the acquisition will help enable it to launch a “next generation” game store that will be available across a number of platforms, including mobile. Microsoft’s hope is that offering “well-known and popular content” will help with “attracting gamers to a new Xbox Mobile Platform” and “shift consumers away from the Google Play Store and App Store.”

“The Transaction will improve Microsoft’s ability to create a next generation game store which operates across a range of devices, including mobile as a result of the addition of Activision Blizzard’s content,” the document reads (pg. 7). “Building on Activision Blizzard’s existing communities of gamers, Xbox will seek to scale the Xbox Store to mobile, attracting gamers to a new Xbox Mobile Platform. Shifting consumers away from the Google Play Store and App Store on mobile devices will, however, require a major shift in consumer behaviour. Microsoft hopes that by offering well-known and popular content, gamers will be more inclined to try something new.”

Earlier this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that mobile gaming was one of the most crucial elements of the company’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Read more on that through here.

Interestingly, in the same document, Microsoft also claimed that Sony and Insomniac’s PS5 title Marvel’s Wolverine is set to launch sometime in 2023.