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XBox (Games) Microsoft Games

Microsoft In Talks To Launch Mobile Gaming Store, Rivaling Apple (bnnbloomberg.ca) 39

Posted by BeauHD from the shouldn't-have-discontinued-Windows-Phone dept.
According to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, the company is talking to partners to help launch a mobile gaming store that will take on Apple and Google. "It's an important part of our strategy and something we are actively working on today not only alone, but talking to other partners who'd also like to see more choice for how they can monetize on the phone," Spencer said in an interview in Sao Paulo during the CCXP comics and entertainment convention. From the report: The executive declined to give a specific date for a launch of the online store, which earlier reports suggested could be next year. "I don't think this is multiple years away, I think this is sooner than that,'' he said. [...] Microsoft's mobile store would also enter a challenging regulatory climate around smartphone-based digital marketplaces. Fortnite-maker Epic Games has sued both Apple and Alphabet's Google over their iOS and Android store practices, alleging they are unnecessarily restrictive and unfair. Apple doesn't allow competing stores on its iPhone and iPad platforms, and collects a 30% cut of sales for most purchases. Game makers have taken issue with the fees.

Epic lost its battle with Apple but in September asked the US Supreme Court to weigh in. Apple is also petitioning that court to reverse an order that would force the company to let developers steer customers to other payment methods. Epic is still in court fighting its case against Google, which does allow third-party app stores on its devices.The European Union's Digital Markets Act, which is just beginning to take effect, could force Apple to open up its app store ecosystem. Apple is challenging the regulation.

Microsoft may be able to use long-standing resentment against the market leaders to martial support for its store offering. Xbox's cloud gaming technology already lets users stream blockbuster games to mobile phones. "We've talked about choice, and today on your mobile phones, you don't have choice,'' Spencer said. "To make sure that Xbox is not only relevant today but for the next 10, 20 years, we're going to have to be strong across many screens." Earlier this week, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart said during the Wells Fargo TMT Summit that Microsoft wants to make first-party games and Game Pass available on "every screen that can play games," including rival consoles. "It's a bit of a change of strategy. Not announcing anything broadly here, but our mission is to bring our first-party experiences [and] our subscription services to every screen that can play games," Stuart said. "That means smart TVs, that means mobile devices, that means what we would have thought of as competitors in the past like PlayStation and Nintendo."
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Microsoft In Talks To Launch Mobile Gaming Store, Rivaling Apple More

Microsoft In Talks To Launch Mobile Gaming Store, Rivaling Apple

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  • Apple has a huge headstart, and a deep loyal share. It'll be tough to beat, and Microsoft isn't in a money-burning mood right now, which is typically how they "earn" marketshare.

    • This time will be different unlike all the other times MS has failed with their stores especially their mobile app stores. This will be about games which many mobile phones play as well as consoles and PCs — not.

    • Loyal share? It's a walled garden.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      Like consoles, it will be all about the exclusive titles. Those will be the main driver for adoption.
  • Promises, promises....

  • Lemme get this straight, they're trying to launch a mobile game store to take on Apple and Google? The companies that corner that market to a near 100% market share, mostly because they also pretty much control the operating system and to a nontrivial portion the hardware all that runs on?

    MS could even get their PC game store off the ground despite having a near 100% market share of the PC gaming market and controlling the OS that market runs on, and using that very control to shove that store right into ev

    • Yes, MS should not be targeting Apple; Apple has a huge mobile App Store. Only some of their apps are games. The competitor that MS should concerned about is Steam. The Steam Deck is created a new market for Valve. As they get more games to run on the SteamDeck, their library will be unbeatable. The last I checked it was over 10,000 games.

      • How will the Steam Deck library ever be "unbeatable" when it will always be a subset of the Windows library?

        • And which Windows library do you refer? Xbox Game Pass for PC has 400 games. Steam itself has over 50,000 games of which 10,000 are available for Steam Deck. The last time I checked, 10,000 was greater than 400. 50,000 was greater than 400.

          • I just use my PC, so I get them all.

            • You have 50,000 games on your PC? You are aware the context of this thread is about stores, right? This is not about the platform which games are made but where consumers can get the games. Where do consumers get their PC games these days. Overwhelmingly they get them Steam.

              • None of those games are going to be Steam Deck exclusives. And some games are not on Steam, like Origin games and those from other website. So the Windows games library is always going to be largest.

                • None of those games are going to be Steam Deck exclusives.

                  What are you talking about? While many of the games on Steam have not signed exclusive agreements with Valve, many of them are defacto exclusives as you cannot buy them anywhere else.

                  . And some games are not on Steam, like Origin games and those from other website.

                  Origin Games: 203. My math says 50K is more than 203. Steam Deck's 10K games is more than 203.

                  So the Windows games library is always going to be largest.

                  1) You seem to forget what the word store means. Being on Windows does not mean Microsoft sells the game. It is on their platform. 2) That's like saying my small library the size of a Starbucks is the "largest" and bigger than the Libr

                  • many of them are defacto exclusives as you cannot buy them anywhere else.

                    Really? How many? Why are they exclusives? Are they greater than the number you can't get on Steam Deck, like on the web or on Origin or other places?

                    Origin Games: 203. My math says 50K is more than 203. Steam Deck's 10K games is more than 203.

                    How many of those are exclusives? Cuz I was saying exclusives.

                    So the Windows games library is always going to be largest.

                    Steam : 50,000 games.

                    And virtually 100% of those are available on Windows. And I'm not talking about stores.

                    Also, if Microsoft starts a store and it doesn't crush Apple, who cares? Even taking a little bit of that market might be a win for them.

                    • Sorry, I hate the quote tags.

                    • Really? How many? Why are they exclusives? Are they greater than the number you can't get on Steam Deck, like on the web or on Origin or other places?,

                      Thousands. Again: defacto exclusives as Valve does not need to sign exclusive deals. What part of 50,000/10,000 games is not clear? You also know many of games owned by Microsoft are not sold by Microsoft right? For example, Fallout 1 and Fallout 2. When MS purchased Bethesda, they purchased their catalog of games. Where can you get Fallout 1 and 2 today? Steam. GOG. Not Bethesda (Bethesda's "Buy Now" link on their website directs you to Steam). Not Microsoft. Not Best Buy as physical copies are long out of

        • Technically, it isn't. De facto, yes, because pretty much every game only runs also on Linux, but I'm not really aware of any relevant Linux-only games out there.

          What makes the Steam library (not necessarily the Steam Deck one ... yet at least) unbeatable is the fact that they pretty much hold gaming on Windows in their hand. If you play games on Windows, it's more likely than not that Steam is your main source for games. That quite a few multiplayer games run into compatibility issues when your friends bou

          • One anecdote to that is that I do not bother buying older games unless it is on Steam. Even if you can get the original physical copy like an old CDROM, it can be a pain to install let alone run those games. Too many times it has required a Google search to find an obscure DLL from a third party site that could be sketchy. For example, I still had the original Fallout and Fallout 2 games. Could not install them on Windows 8.1 for some reason. Maybe in the years since then, someone has figured it out; it was

          • If that's true, it's SUPER anti-competitive!

  • Microsoft is the most monopolistic software company ever. It's been slapped down by regulators in more countries than any ofhter software company, and by "slapped down" i mean billions of dollars and unbundling software.

    Now they'll open an "app store". Because Windows Update just isn't profitable enough?

    What could go wrong?

    E

    • Microsoft was sued a lot early on, yes, but that is mainly a consequence of being an early market leader, the one that beat out a lot of early companies like Netscape, who charged money for a horrible product. It deserved some of it, but IMO a lot of the supposedly "big bad stuff" it got slapped down for is commonplace and even expected today, like bundling a browser with an OS!

      I recall Google refusing to allow Windows Phone apps to access their services a decade ago, a clearly anti-competitive (or duopoli

      • You may have to read up on what Microsoft has done in the past. Phrases like MSDOS isn't done until Lotus won't run may not be true, but loads of the behaviour was. Case in point, as you mention browsers, Microsoft was way behind mosaic and others, so they got what became Internet Explorer from Spyglass, signing that they'd pay with a percentage of the turnover. Then they gave away Internet Explorer for free and bundled it...

        • I know all about it.

          • Didn't sound like it, since you considered them an early market leader. They weren't, but sabotaged all others. Your post made it sound like it's par for the course, and I wholeheartedly disagree.

            • What's your point? They bundled it, which is what any rational OS maker did at the time since the internet was already essential, and becoming more so. Netscape's product was awful, paid, hard to get (for laymen), and they lost because of it.

              Firefox later made a free browser that didn't suck, with a business model that was compatible, they've done well. Google made Chrome which was such better browser than IE that even layment put in extra effort to get it!

              • I find your apologetic stance towards Microsoft's behaviour inexcusable. Yes, other companies do similar stuff, and no, we should call them out for it, not accept it as just something that companies do. By the way, I don't recall paying for Mosaic or Netscape Navigator. Firefox didn't make a browser, Mozilla did. And lots of others did too, like the KDE team, who made khtml as basis of Konqueror. And if you think that Chrome was so much better than IE that laymen put in extra effort to get it, you've not un
      • the one that beat out a lot of early companies like Netscape, who charged money for a horrible product. Netscape was always free ! MS purposely blocked Netscape from being chosen as the default browser and ran them out of business before being sued and had to let people chose their own browser. They had things locked down harder than Apple's walled garden !. MS is being sued now by the EU commission for using the same tactic !!
  • But if I was there is absolutely no way in hell you could ever convince me to do business with Microsoft. There's a reason why the Windows store on Windows 8 died quickly. Every single game publisher recognized that the moment Microsoft gets to create a walled garden is the moment when it's all over. They will eat you and your company alive and the best you can hope for is a modest buyout so you can retire if you are one of the CEOs.

    The only company I know of on Earth that's even close to his cutthroat
  • I get so tingly and excited when executives talk about the ability to monetize moar games and things. Because there's simply not been enough effort to enshittify games already.

  • Instead of barely disguised monetizing schemes?

  • Me toooooo

  • Your honor, we don't allow anyone to download XBOX games from rival stores but we want other hardware manufacturers to open up their app stores. That is because we are nice monopoly. Oh and we collect minimum $10 from every program written for XBOX. You can't even distribute free games on XBOX. That is because we are nice monopoly. When we had Windows Mobile phones, we didn't allow anyone to download an app from rival stores, but we want Google and Apple to do so, because we are nice monopoly.

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Keep up the good work! But please don't ask me to help.

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