Microsoft is not abandoning its project to create an Xbox game store for mobile devices, although the plans are clearly stalled. Announced in 2022, the platform was intended to launch in 2024, but has encountered the insurmountable barrier of the dominant app stores' policies. The company was confident that regulatory changes would force an opening, but reality has been different. 🎮
The pivot towards a Progressive Web App as Plan B 🌐
Given the impossibility of distributing a native app, Microsoft has redirected development towards a Progressive Web App. This web-based solution avoids store restrictions and their commissions, but presents technical challenges in performance and hardware access. The effectiveness of this path depends on mobile browsers supporting advanced APIs, something that is also largely controlled by the same players in the ecosystem.
Waiting for the DMA to open the door... with a crane ⏳
Microsoft's strategy seems to be to sit and wait for European regulation to force Apple to open its fortress. It's a game of patience where the Redmond company watches other legal battles unfold, hoping to slip through the crack. Meanwhile, its web store is like having the console but without a power cord, a theoretically solid plan that depends on someone else removing the lock.