Microsoft’s Xbox division is in talks with several partners about releasing its own mobile game store, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer confirmed. According to him, it “won’t be several years” before such a platform is released.
Spencer gives the confirmation during an event in Sao Paolo, Bloomberg writes. He said, “[A mobile game store] is an important part of our strategy and we are actively working on it, including with partners who would like to have more revenue-generating opportunities on smartphones.” Earlier this year he mentioned a mobile game store, and in October these plans came up again when Microsoft talked about a “next-gen game store for multiple devices, including smartphones,” in documents surrounding its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The Xbox chief reasons that especially in South America, many new subscribers are still taking out an Xbox Game Pass. Half of all new subscribers from this region are said to be from Peru and Costa Rica. He also says that Brazil is the second largest market for the PC Game Pass. It is precisely in these markets that smartphones are an important gaming platform, possibly contributing to Xbox’s strategy of establishing a mobile game store.
