Xbox plans to increase its mobile presence with Activision Blizzard King
“The reason we’re in the acquisition discussion with Activision Blizzard King is around their mobile capability, because it’s just something we don’t have,” Spencer told Eurogamer. “We obviously already have Call of Duty on our platform, we already have Diablo on our platform. So, it’s not about new games that Xbox players don’t have access to today. It is about a capability on mobile, and some broader ambitions that we have on the largest gaming platform, which is mobile phones.” Spencer later added, “We think that for Xbox to continue to thrive, we need to have some relevant place in the whole province.”
In response to the CMA last year, Spencer revealed that Microsoft plans to build an Xbox mobile gaming store following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. The Xbox chief then revealed in March that rule changes to Apple and Google’s app stores could lead to Microsoft rolling it out as early as next year. According to Spencer, Microsoft thinks that it’s “important” to have an Xbox mobile store.
“If you go back to the origins of how Steam got created, that was about a place for Valve to distribute their content. Why did the players go there? Because Half-Life was awesome. And people wanted to find the expansion packs and other things. So, when we look at going into another platform, hopefully that is open to other storefronts, which isn’t true globally today,” Spencer said. “We know that having content to draw interest from players, which then draws interest from creators to create, is a model where creators will say, ‘Hey, here’s a place where I also might want to put our content on mobile phones’, [which] is an important ingredient.”
Of course, many of Microsoft’s mobile plans are currently linked to the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which could be settled in October, provided the CMA signs off on it. “I remain confident in the deal,” Spencer said. “We’re obviously working constructively with regulators. It’s my first time doing a deal of the size in the regulatory process. Maybe that’s obvious now from the outside! But we remain confident in the process.”
Earlier this week, Microsoft revealed that following the acquisition’s closure, the cloud gaming rights of Activision Blizzard’s titles would be sold to Ubisoft via a 15-year deal. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is expected to make a decision in October, and hopefully bring the deal to a close.
