Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, Oct. 19, according to The Verge, Microsoft will build a Xbox mobile game store that will provide games directly on mobile devices, challenging Apple and Google.

In a document submitted to the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Microsoft revealed details of the plan. CMA is currently investigating Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and asked about Microsoft's background.

Microsoft said in its filing that one of the major motivations for the acquisition was to help expand its mobile gaming business. The following is the company's statement in the filing:

The deal will enhance Microsoft's ability to create a next-generation game store that will operate on a range of devices, including mobile devices, after adding Activision Blizzard content. Building on Activision's existing player community, Xbox will seek to expand the Xbox store to mobile devices to attract players to the new Xbox mobile platform.

However, moving consumers away from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store on mobile devices will require a major shift in consumer behavior, and Microsoft hopes to make players more likely to try new things by providing well-known and popular content.

CTOnews.com learned that Activision Blizzard has launched very popular mobile games such as call of Duty and Candy Crush Legend on mobile platforms, and Microsoft can use these games to help build a game store to compete with Google Play and App Store. In addition, Microsoft is vigorously promoting its Xbox cloud game and bringing the service to a number of handset devices, including Steam Deck.

Microsoft also said that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard also took a fancy to the strong profitability of mobile games, the statement said:

The deal makes sense for Microsoft in the field of mobile games. Mobile game revenue from King and games such as call of Duty and ancillary revenue accounted for more than half of Activision Blizzard's revenue in the first half of 2022. Mobile customers account for about 3/4 of its MAU.

Microsoft currently has no substantial business in mobile games, and the deal will bring much-needed expertise to mobile game development, marketing and advertising. Activision Blizzard will be able to provide Xbox game studios with experience in developing and publishing mobile games.

However, as part of the survey, CMA barely discussed Microsoft's potential to enter the mobile game market, focusing instead on console games. Microsoft believes that the share of console games in the entire market is getting smaller and smaller. In a chart released, Microsoft said the entire game market in 2020 was worth $165 billion, including consoles worth $33 billion (20 per cent), PC worth $40 billion (24 per cent) and mobile games worth $85 billion (51 per cent).

In addition, in order to attract third-party game developers, Microsoft has promised a set of principles that allow developers to run their own app store freely on its Xbox mobile platform and provide its own payment system to handle in-app purchases, that is, without compulsory commission, which cannot be done on Apple and Google platforms.

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