Xbox Claims It's Blocked From Being Able to Sell and Play Its Games on Android - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 28 November 2024 / 2,167 Views
A US judge in October ordered Google to open its Android marketplace to competitors that would mean Google is not allowed to block third-party Android app stores via Google Play.
Xbox President Sarah Bond in a statement posted to Bluesky says the Xbox team has built the functionality to buy and play games via the Xbox app on Android, however, a temporary administrative stay has meant they are not able to launch these features.
"At Xbox, we want to offer players more choice on how and where they play, including being able to play and buy games directly from the Xbox app," said Bond.
"I recently shared our ambition to unlock these features first with the Google Play Store on Android devices in the U.S. while other app stores adapt to meet consumer demand.
"Due to a temporary administrative stay recently granted by the courts, we are currently unable to launch these features as planned. Our team has the functionality built and ready to go live as soon as the court makes a final decision.
"We are eager to launch and give more choice and flexibility to players."
Google spokesperson Dan Jackson in a statement sent to The Verge claiming nothing is stopping Microsoft from implementing these features.
"Microsoft has always been able to offer their Android users the ability to play and purchase Xbox games directly from their app – they’ve simply chosen not to," said Jackson.
"The Court’s order, and rush to force its implementation, threaten Google Play’s ability to provide a safe and secure experience. Microsoft, like Epic, are ignoring these very real security concerns. We remain focused on supporting an ecosystem that works for everyone, not just two of the largest game companies."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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This isn't an Xbox.
Are you sure.... pretty sure I remember their marketing showing it was :)
They’re lying by omission, they absolutely are allowed to do those things, they simply don’t want to pay Google any royalties to do so. The “blocking” is their own choice, it’s their choice that is leading to consumers having less options.
What are you talking about lol? They are talking about doing it "without" paying Google from the start... And Google is definitely preventing them to do that unless they go over them (which is probably not even possible...). They are not lying... This is 100% true lol
This is the direct quote:
"At Xbox, we want to offer players more choice on how and where they play, including being able to play and buy games directly from the Xbox app," said Bond.
They can do that right now. They omitted the part where it is about fees, not the ability to offer the service, which they currently are able to do. That is a lie by omission. They are omitting a key fact from their statement to imply something different than the truth. Their implying they can’t currently offer those services at all.
They did not "omit" anything; they are talking about their app and what they want to offer, and giving 30% to is EXACTLY what they are saying they want to avoid (and they are also talking about the court order); so again I do not know what you are talking about. Nobody is omiting anything.
Theyre literally saying they want to do it but can’t, they never once mention fees. Saying they can’t is a lie, they absolutely can. They can do it any time they want. You can buy games through the Steam App and Playstation App you download from Google and Apple. What MS want is to make more money from the transactions, not give people more choice, they could give the people that choice any time they want, they chose not to.
“ Due to a temporary administrative stay recently granted by the courts, we are currently unable to launch these features as planned”
Are they able to launch these plans or not? The answer is they are able to launch them anytime they want, therefore saying they’re unable to is a lie. They simply don’t want to under the current economic conditions. It is MS that is making the direct choice to remove options from players. Google are only indirectly responsible, they are not blocking anything.
Boy... okay dude. W/e
They're not able to sell on Android without giving Google a big cut. It would be something like requiring everybody that purchases software via a Windows PC to give MS 30% of the sale.
No different on steam.
Doesn't Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all charge about 30% to put games on their platforms? EA for instance can't sell me their game to play for 30% less and not pay Sony it's royalty fees.
That’s not true, you can sell through Android without giving Google a cut. Google only take a cut from apps installed through the Google play store. You can install apps through something like the Amazon App Store and Google don’t get a cut(Amazon does).
It’s the same as windows, MS gets cut from everything from the windows store.
The ruling that MS is interested in is that they, as the developer, get to use a payment processing method other than Googles when buying things in-app and therefore skips paying fees from apps installed through the play store. MS does not offer this option to developers on the windows store you’ll be shocked to learn.
The 30% cut Google wants completely takes any little profit there is in cloud streaming games.
just raise prices for phone users, that want to stream then?
Streaming is a problem but for normally buying games it is currently offered through the PS App and Steam App. They offered the choice to their users.
They both are lying. Google lies about the security stuff as well. They would have an easy time to deal on technical terms to make the system more secure. But even Google on their own with Playstore already could do more technically - and decides not to.
What they both actually fight about is the consumers money. They both want to secure the biggest share of that, and that is what the struggler is about on both sides. Everything else is just a distraction.
They thought they were being blocked, but it turned out that it was just no one wanted to buy their games!
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