What you need to know
- Earlier in the year, Xbox president Sarah Bond announced that the Xbox Mobile Store would be launching at some point in July 2024.
- A web page for the Xbox Mobile Store has been spotted, with the description that is coming soon and thanking users for taking part in the Xbox Insiders program.
- The Xbox Mobile Store will begin with first-party games like Candy Crush and Minecraft, with third-party games being added at a later date.
It looks like some players may be able to play Xbox mobile games fairly soon.
A web page for the Xbox Mobile Store has been spotted (thanks, @Klobrille) with a description thanking users for signing up for the Xbox Insiders program and indicating that access is coming soon.
Back in May, Xbox president Sarah Bond announced that the Xbox Mobile Store would be launching at some point in July 2024. As of July 29, as I'm writing this, there has been no official word on when the store will be launching, and we are clearly running out of July in just a couple of days.
At the time, Bond indicated that the store would first be launching as a web-based store, providing users an alternative to the app stores run by Apple and Google. Bond also confirmed that the store would first be launching with first-party games like Candy Crush and Minecraft from King and Mojang, respectively, with third-party games from external partners being added to the store at a later date.
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It's possible we get an announcement in the next couple of days, allowing the Xbox Mobile Store to squeak in at the end of the month. It's also possible it's been slightly delayed and we'll instead see something officially announced in August.
Either way, it seems safe to expect something being announced in the coming days and weeks. It'll be interesting to see if access rolls out to members of the Xbox Insider program first, like this page seems to indicate. If so, I'm curious how long it'll be before it then opens up for all users. That's going to be important in order for the store to acquire more casual users.
There are a lot of questions surrounding the Xbox Mobile Store right now, from ease of access to the starting game library to what (if any?) Xbox Game Pass integration is available.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has previously spoken at length about how critical mobile gaming is for Xbox, something that's been cited as one of the biggest reasons for Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard King, adding mobile opportunities around franchises like Candy Crush, Call of Duty, and Diablo from across Blizzard Entertainment and King.
Xbox also has some other mobile development capacity, such as the mobile team at now-unionized Bethesda Game Studios that is working on The Elder Scrolls: Castles.
