Back in October, Microsoft announced that it would finally start selling Xbox games through apps on Android devices by November. This, as edge point outhas not happened yet. Now, Xbox president Sarah Bond has taken to social media to blame Google for the delay.
a year ago, Epic beats Google in a surprisingly huge victory in their ongoing litigation. Currently, all purchases on Android devices go through Google’s payment system, from which the search company takes a 30% cut. Epic, hoping to sell it fort night In-game items that don’t hand over a third of the money to Google go to court arguing it’s anti-competitive. Epic wins, then The judge’s rather excited comments and final verdict In October 2024, that means Google will be required to end its dominance and allow other ways to make purchases on its devices, without Google taking a cut.
Yes, “will”, because of course that hasn’t happened yet. Considering Microsoft’s announcement of its plans in light of the ruling may have been a bit much. course Google appealed and was granted an “administrative stay” to block the major changes.
Sarah Bond posted on BlueSky yesterday, explaining the reasons for the delay from her perspective. “I recently shared our ambition to unlock these features first through the Google Play Store on U.S. Android devices, while other app stores adapt to meet consumer demand,” she wrote in a post. “Due to the temporary administrative stay recently granted by the courts, we are currently unable to roll out these features as planned.”
Bond went on to say that Microsoft has “built out the functionality and is ready to go live” but is awaiting court approval.
This all adds an extra layer of irony, given that Microsoft’s new “This is an Xbox” advertising campaign is based on the idea that any device can become an Xbox through streaming. Of course, that’s still the case for your Android phone through the browser, but Microsoft is apparently looking at a closed system where it can sell you games through Android and then let you play them in the same app .
Google has long argued that it needs to continue taking a third of everyone’s money for the safety of its customers and because its own Play Store prevents bad actors from abusing the system. “Microsoft, like Epic, is ignoring these very real security concerns,” the company said in a statement. edge.
There’s still a lot of confusion that Microsoft doesn’t seem keen on clarifying, as Sony allows you to buy games from its PlayStation app, as does Steam, although of course neither company allows you to play games through the app. It’s unclear whether Sony or Valve will pay 30% or avoid paying by loading a web page into their app to do so, but either way, Microsoft clearly doesn’t plan to do so anytime soon.
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