Microsoftis building a mobile gaming store that will rival both Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Currently, Microsoft has almost no presence in the mobile gaming market, but it plans to change that followingits acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The massive $68.7 billion deal hasn’t been completed yet and is currently being investigated by regulators in some countries, and Microsoft is now using this mobile presence angle as a way to convince the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard isn’t expected to come through until 2023, but when that happens, theXbox owner will get instant access to Activision Blizzard’s rich portfolio of video games, including hit franchises such asCall of Duty,Diablo, andWarcraft. But what is often overlooked is the fact that Activision Blizzard also owns King, which holds a big chunk of market share in the mobile gaming space, courtesy of remarkably popular titles such asCandy Crush. For Microsoft, this will give it a huge head start in building its own mobile game ecosystem.
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In a filing to the CMA, Microsoft details its plans to create a new mobile store that willrely on Activision’s and King’s games. Microsoft says that the acquisition will allow it to “scale the Xbox Store to mobile” and to “attract gamers to a new Xbox Mobile Store.” The company also acknowledges that shifting consumers away from the App Store and Google Play Store on mobile devices requires a major shift in consumer behavior, which is why it hopes that “by offering well-known and popular content, gamers will be more inclined to try something new.”
While many would say thatCall of Dutyis the biggest prize that Microsoft could get from the acquisition, the Xbox owner is clearly setting its sight way beyond with that sum of money, especially in regard to revenue. In the same document, Microsoft also highlights how revenue from King’s games and other mobile titles such asCall of Duty: Mobileactually “represented more than half of Activision Blizzard’s revenues in the first half of 2022,” not to mention that mobile customers account for around three-quarters of Activision Blizzard’s monthly active users. With the acquisition, Microsoft believes that Activision Blizzard will be able to “contribute its learnings from developing and publishing mobile games to Xbox gaming studios.”
It’s currently unclear how Microsoft plans to execute this mobile vision when the deal come through next year. While the idea of challenging the App Store and Google Play Store already sounds difficult enough, Microsoft still needs to consider other potential obstacles as well, such as Apple’s policies of blocking third-party app stores on iOS. For now, though, Microsoft’s focus will still be ongetting the deal greenlit by regulators.
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