Did Asha Sharma kill another ill-fated Xbox project? The “Xbox Mobile Store” seems to be dead. [UPDATE: Xbox responds]

Original article: One of Microsoft’s more ambitious initiatives over the last few years was the creation of an Xbox Mobile Store, but that project now seems to be thoroughly dead.

Although it might’ve been killed prior, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has been intent on cutting Xbox projects that stray beyond the core of what Xbox traditionally is. She removed the “This is an Xbox” marketing push, which perhaps would’ve made more sense if indeed Xbox had a mobile store. She also reverted the Xbox Game Pass 50% price hike just yesterday, and now it seems another project might’ve been killed off too.

Microsoft announced the Xbox Mobile Store almost two years ago in the summer of July 2024. It was supposed to launch by the winter of that year … but it never did. Now, Microsoft API watcher @RedPhx reiterated that the Xbox Mobile Store URLs don’t actually work anymore, after previously following its development.

The Xbox Mobile Store, in testing, featured Candy Crush and included benefits for signing up via a Microsoft Account. It had something called the “Crusher Club,” which would award users 10% more in-app currency for purchasing via Microsoft’s store instead of via Google Play. It’s not dissimilar to what we’ve seen with the Samsung Store, which often did special deals with games for in-app benefits not available via Google Play.

The thing that Microsoft seemed to curiously overlook is the fact that Google and Apple were (and still do) make it incredibly hard, if not practically impossible, to set up a competing third-party store on their operating systems. Both companies either outright block, obfuscate, or restrict attempts to put together similar services on their platforms, despite regulatory rulings forcing them to open up.

The most recent thing we heard about it was last year, when Microsoft blamed Apple and Google for effectively blocking the services on their platforms during one of Epic Games’ court cases. Unsurprising, really, but why didn’t Microsoft realize that before it invested $$$ into the project? I certainly did, and I’m pretty dumb.

In any case, it seems the Xbox Mobile Store “dream” is totally dead. And it’s hardly a shock.

The Xbox Mobile store was doomed from the start, what happened?

Epic Games has been spending millions fighting both Google and Apple for the right to set up its own Epic Games Store on mobile devices. Despite winning those battles, people are creatures of habit, particularly on mobile. Straying outside of the walled gardens put together by Apple and Google is not typically something people do. Samsung phones come pre-installed with the Galaxy app store, and as you might expect, virtually nobody uses it.

Microsoft inexplicably thought it could just walk in and set up its own store on Android and iOS, and never explained how it hoped to get around their rules about competing storefronts after its initial web-based version. Nor did it explain how apps would be downloaded or executed despite blocks on both of those platforms.

Speaking to Bloomberg previously, outgoing Xbox president Sarah Bond said that Xbox’s mobile game store would launch in July 2024. It was then delayed to winter 2024, and then it was never heard of again.

“We’re gonna start by bringing our first-party portfolio [to the Xbox Mobile Store]. Things like Candy Crush and Minecraft will show up there. And then we’ll extend that capability to partners.” Bond explained in 2024.

She noted that it would be web-based initially, to get around the store policies of Google and Apple. Although it was never really explained how the games would run, since Google and Apple also block third-party app package downloads by default, as noted. The idea that casual gamers and kids were going to jump through all the necessary hoops to get 10% more Candy Crush in-app content never seemed to make sense to me.

Where this could’ve made some vague semblance of sense would’ve been if Microsoft actually, you know, made phones. Perhaps there was a time when this project was started up with the Surface Duo in mind. There was a time when the Surface Duo even had unique Xbox Cloud Gaming capabilities, turning half of the phone into a gamepad (awesome by the way).

I expect a lot of the work on the Xbox Mobile Store pivoted to the web-based versions of Xbox Cloud Gaming when Microsoft realized Apple and Google weren’t going to allow Microsoft to host those on its platform directly either. In any case, Xbox’s mobile game store aspirations are now most likely dead.

I don’t think Microsoft should give up in this area, though. Candy Crush absolutely should have some kind of Xbox integration and benefits for users, perhaps with Xbox Game Pass, as part of the app itself. So should Minecraft on iPad, etc.

Of course, none of this would be an issue if Satya Nadella hadn’t killed Windows Phone … but hey ho.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft to see what the status is of Xbox’s mobile ambitions, if indeed there are any. Although I’m sure Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has a lot of much bigger things on her radar right now.

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