Microsoft blames Apple for its long-delayed Xbox mobile store

Microsoft is blaming Apple for prolonging the launch of its frequently delayed Xbox mobile store.

The Windows maker published a legal brief siding with Fortnite developer Epic Games in its own long-running feud with Apple over the App Store’s policies. In it, Microsoft takes issue with Apple’s efforts to overturn an injunction that allows companies like Epic to advertise alternative in-app payment methods while not having to pay the usual App Store cut. This has run counter to Xbox plans to offer a mobile store that initially features games from its first-party portfolio, including Minecraft and Candy Crush, followed by third-party titles.

“The district court’s injunction allows Apple to maintain its in-app exclusivity but at least should have enabled Microsoft to offer consumers a workable solution by launching its own online store – accessible via link-out – for in-app items to be purchased off-app and used in games or other apps. And that is what Microsoft wants to do. But even this solution has been stymied by Apple,” wrote Microsoft.

The company cites “Apple’s new anti-steering policies that restrict Microsoft’s communication to users and impose an even higher economic cost to Microsoft than before the injunction.” Clearly, Microsoft is concerned with Apple’s current appeal process and wants to ensure that’s resolved before moving ahead with the mobile store. That way, it wouldn’t have to launch and then remove it shortly thereafter, similar to what Epic had to do recently with Fortnite.

Microsoft even says in its filing that Apple “makes no argument that the technical or policy changes cannot be undone,” adding that its own “experience managing app stores confirms that Apple’s policies could be restored if Apple ultimately prevails on appeal.”

It should be noted that irrespective of Apple’s dealings, Microsoft itself hasn’t exactly been the best in communicating its mobile plans. Last May, the company confirmed the Xbox store would launch in July, only for it to go radio silent while updating its website in late July to say the marketplace is “coming soon.” It was eventually slated to debut in November on Android, but Microsoft later blamed the courts for a “temporary administrative stay” that prevented this.

All of this is to say it’s not really clear when we can expect this mobile store. For years now, Microsoft has said its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard was engineered in part to leverage the Call of Duty maker’s extensive background in mobile games with the likes of Candy Crush and Call of Duty Mobile. However, the company recently pulled Call of Duty: Warzone from mobile storefronts as it “has not met” expectations. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether plans for the Xbox mobile store will have changed at all.

Image credit: Xbox

Via: The Verge