Xbox President Sarah Bond Announced Xbox Mobile Store to Launch in July

Xbox president Sarah Bond revealed to Bloomberg that an Xbox mobile store will be launching by July of this year.

Envisioned to be an alternative to Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, Bond states that the Xbox mobile store will not be an app. Instead, it’ll be accessible “across all devices, all countries, no matter what, independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores, and then we’re gonna extend from there.” To do so, Xbox will make its mobile store available through the internet.

At launch, Xbox’s mobile offering will begin by delivering first-party games and experiences. During her interview, where Bond also spoke about the recent Xbox studio closures, Bond confirmed that Microsoft-owned games will be available. King’s Candy Crush and Minecraft from Mojang will be amongst the first few titles. Following the initial launch, third-party partners will be invited onto the mobile store. However, Bond didn’t elaborate on which partners would be involved.

“This web-based store is the first step in our journey to building a trusted app store with its roots in gaming,” an Xbox spokesperson told Bloomberg in an email.

Microsoft has long had ambitions of launching a mobile storefront to take on Apple and Google. Back in late 2023, Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, discussed an online store. At the time, Spencer talked about how tapping into the market would be required for Xbox to maintain relevancy within mobile gaming. Following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which folded King into the Xbox umbrella, it became a ‘when’ and not an ‘if.’ “It doesn’t mean I want to turn all of our franchises into mobile franchises, it doesn’t mean everything is going to go free-to-play,” Spencer said back in 2023.

Microsoft’s mobile catalogue expanded with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Ontop of Candy Crush, the publisher brought along Diablo Immortal, Call of Duty: Mobile, and the recently launched Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile.