In July, Microsoft will launch a marketplace with games, which will initially feature titles from its own studios (such as Call of Duty: Mobile, Candy Crush, and Minecraft) and later expand to other publishers.
The Xbox Store, which will become an alternative to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, will work not as an application but as a website — Microsoft wants to provide access to it for more devices and countries.
However, it is not very clear how these games will be distributed online. iOS supports third-party downloads, but So far, only in the EU.
Microsoft first hinted at a next-generation «store» in early 2022, just a month after announcing acquisition of Activision by Blizzard.
«We want to be able to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners on any device that can be played,» Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer told the Financial Times last year. «We can’t do that on mobile today, but we want to build a world where we can».
This week, Microsoft closed several Bethesda studios — developers of Redfall and Hi-Fi Rush, among others. Also, the developer of the mobile game Mighty Doom Alpha Dog Studios will cease operations, and Roundhouse Games will be absorbed by The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios.
Bloomberg also reported that Microsoft is asking a number of current ZeniMax team members, including producers and quality testers, to enter into voluntary separation agreements. The company is also thinking about other measures to increase revenue from games, including raising prices for the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service and possibly planning to offer more games, such as Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, for the Sony PlayStation 5 console.
Source: 9to5google, The Verge