A few weeks ago, Microsoft’s Sarah Bond said that in November “players will be able to play and buy Xbox games directly from the Xbox app on Android”. It’s almost December and the feature still doesn’t work, but Bond says it’s not Microsoft’s fault.
The problem, she says, is that Microsoft will only be able to do so after a court order comes into effect that calls for radical changes to the Google Play Store on Android, including opening it up to competition and removing the requirement for apps to use the Google Play Billing payment system.
On October 18, Judge James Donato granted Google’s request for a stay while the company appeals his ruling that the Android app store is an illegal monopoly, which could leave the situation in limbo for a long time. Bond mentioned this in a post on Bluesky today, writing: “Due to the temporary administrative stay recently granted by the court, we are currently unable to launch these features as planned. Our team has developed the functionality and is ready to launch as soon as the court issues a final ruling.”
Microsoft has been planning its mobile app store strategy for years. However, as frustrating as it is for gamers, the company still hasn’t clearly said what exactly is stopping it from offering Xbox game purchases like Steam and PlayStation already do, along with integrated Xbox Cloud Gaming features. We also have no update on the status of the mobile store, which still shows “coming soon” as it did in August.
