Xbox: It will be possible to download games directly from the mobile application
Microsoft Xbox Series
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It was Sarah Bond, current president of Xbox, who spoke first on X: “The court's decision to open Google's mobile store in the USA will give us more choice and flexibility. Our mission is to enable more players to play on as many devices as possible. So we're excited to announce that starting this November, gamers will be able to purchase and play Xbox games directly from the Xbox app for Android“.
The court's ruling to open up Google´s mobile store in the US will allow more choice and flexibility. Our mission is to allow more players to play on more devices so we are excited to share that starting in November, players will be able to play and purchase Xbox games directly…
— BondSarahBond (@BondSarah_Bond) October 10, 2024
As a reminder, on October 7, American justice forced Google to review its policy related to the Play Store, for a period of 3 years. Thus, to combat the monopoly of the Google Play Store, the American judge determined that Google “could no longer require the use of Google Play payment methods in applications distributed on the Google Play Store, nor prohibit the use of in-app payment methods other than Google Play billing“.
Xbox: it will be possible to use the mobile application to buy and play games
The Xbox application becomes essential for owners of a Microsoft console
Concretely, this implies that Microsoft can now charge for the games present on its application without having to go through Google. Furthermore, this opens the door to many other online stores. In other words, the player will be able to go directly through the Xbox application to purchase new games on their console. Be careful, however: this does not necessarily mean that it will be possible to download and play the games locally on your smartphone from the Xbox application: in reality, the games should only be accessible via cloud gaming.
Note also that Google has appealed the court decision allowing Xbox to make these changes: it is therefore possible that everything will change soon. However, Google will already have to make its policy change from November 1, which will allow Microsoft to launch its new products without problem.
