Xbox boss Phil Spencer has told Bloomberg that his team is doing “additional research on the market” before it launches its mobile game store, which was originally scheduled for July.
Microsoft’s gaming arm is also not finished with M&A either, following that colossal Activision Blizzard deal. The Bloomberg report suggests that Xbox and Spencer are considering buying one or more mobile studios that could add “geographic diversity” to its portfolio, with a focus on Asia, particularly China.
No major deal is imminent currently, Spencer said, but he did note the work done on recent launch Age of Empires mobile in collaboration with Tencent. He said Xbox wanted to work with Chinese mobile studios more in the future.
Back in May, Xbox said it would launch its own mobile game store in July, but it missed its launch month and was delayed indefinitely in August. There’s also been very little information out in the market about the store, as we reported in May.
In today’s Bloomberg interview, Spencer didn’t state a launch window but instead said his team is doing “additional research on the market” before it goes ahead with the launch. Xbox staffers are still talking to mobile game developers, the report says, including the internal teams running Candy Crush Saga and Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile.
Previously, Xbox president Sarah Bond had announced that the Xbox mobile game store would launch as a webshop and expand from there. But Spencer appeared to doubt the effectiveness of this approach, saying: “A web store would mean somebody doesn’t have to go into the app store to try to install something, but you still have to have a way to find the store. If we’re just hoping, like, if we build it, they will come, I’m going to bet that doesn’t work”.
Spencer did note, however, that with Apple and Google slowly loosening their tight grip on the mobile ecosystem, the market is “moving in the right direction”.
“I think this idea of open platforms, where users have more choice, creators have more choice, you see the momentum, right?” he added.
The Bloomberg piece concludes with Spencer saying he’s optimistic about the growth of mobile games, adding: “I feel pretty good about where this industry is going.”
“To reach new players, we need to be creative and adaptive of new business models, new devices, new ways of access. We’re not going to grow the market with $1,000 consoles.”
