Earlier this week, a US judge ruled and ordered a permanent injunction placed on Google, This action is supposed to force the company to allow third-party app stores on Android devices, starting on November 1. While Google quickly announced it planned to appeal the judge"s decision, that apparently is not going to stop one of its biggest rivals, Microsoft, from announcing its own plans to let people purchase and play games on one of its own apps.
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 thrilled to share that starting in November, players will be able to play and purchase Xbox games directly…
— BondSarahBond (@BondSarah_Bond) October 10, 2024
This evening, Microsoft Xbox President Sarah Bond posted on her X account that this week"s court decision "will allow more choice and flexibility" for Android owners in the US. Therefore, Bond revealed that sometime in November, "players will be able to play and purchase Xbox games directly from the Xbox App on Android."
So far, Microsoft has not offered up any more details of the specifics of this update to the Android Xbox app. Presumably, the games that will be playable directly from the mobile app will support the company"s Xbox Cloud Gaming service, which is only available with a subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. We will have to see if Google"s court appeal will have any effect on Microsoft"s plans for the Xbox Android app.
We are still waiting for Microsoft to launch its promised web-based mobile game store. Bond previously said that the mobile game store would launch in July, but that date came and went with no such release. Microsoft"s most recent update on the store simply said it was still in testing, but no new launch date was revealed.