A new round of competition in overseas game channels is about to begin.
A few days ago, Microsoft announced that it will launch a mobile app store in July this year. This is another overseas game giant after Epic to enter the game app store field. These manufacturers are trying to "take a buck" from the tiger's mouth, Apple's and Google's two major mobile app stores.
Microsoft and Epic enter the app store market
A few days ago, Xbox President Sarah Bond announced at the Bloomberg Technology Summit that Microsoft will launch the Xbox mobile store in July this year. The store is a web-based version of the store first because it can cover all types of devices, all countries and regions, and can be expanded on top of it in defiance of the closed ecosystem store policy.
According to Sarah Bond, what Microsoft wants is to "facilitate gaming between consoles, PCs and mobile devices" and that the Xbox mobile store will enable users to carry their game library, identities and rewards across platforms, rather than being "locked into a single ecosystem".
At the same time, she also revealed, "Microsoft will bring first-party games to the store, you will see Candy Crush Saga, Minecraft products, and we will expand our partners so that they can take advantage of this and provide a truly cross-platform-centric mobile gaming experience."
Microsoft has been rumored to launch the Xbox mobile store since last year, and in February this year, Microsoft also revealed that its app store will be game-first and began reaching out to external gaming partners. Now, as the Xbox mobile store launch date approaches, Microsoft's competition with Apple's App Store and Google's Google Play may begin.
In fact, not only Microsoft, but also Epic is also promoting its own game app store. In March, Steve Allison, general manager of the Epic Games Store, announced at the GDC2024 that a mobile version of the Epic Games Store (EGS) would be available later this year.
He mentioned that in the Epic Games Store for mobile, developers enjoy the same fair terms as the Epic Games Store (PC), where Epic receives a 12% revenue share.
In addition, Epic Games Store (PC) incentives, such as the Epic Launch Program and the Epic Launch Program, are also available on mobile, allowing developers to retain 100% of their revenue with their own in-app purchase payments, Epic First Run, and Now On Epic.
The Epic Games Store Mobile will also feature Epic-owned content, including Fortnite, as well as select third-party partner apps. He revealed that many third-party game manufacturers have expressed their intention to cooperate with the company.
Whether it's Epic or Microsoft, they're going to attack the mobile app store market that Apple and Google have been building for years.
Overseas game channels are facing new changes
In the past few years, Apple's App Store and Google's Google Play have accounted for the vast majority of the app store market. And both major app stores have a 30% royalty.
This high fee has been criticized by many game developers. Epic in particular, CEO Tim Sweeney has a long history of dissatisfaction with the AppStore and its fee structure. He has said in an interview with the media that Apple and Google are hindering innovation through their respective app store policies, and called the commission model "very unfair". Therefore, in recent years, Epic and Apple have faced off from time to time.
From this point of view, it is understandable that Epic will launch the app store, and it has the strength to promote the mobile app store with the support of a large number of PC game users and game engines. Microsoft is also dissatisfied with Apple's App Store policy, with Sarah Bond publicly criticizing Apple's response to the EU's DMA policy. Nowadays, it is not difficult to understand that Microsoft has launched a gaming app store, and behind it stands the gaming giant Activision Blizzard.
Why have overseas game giants entered the field of game app stores?
In our view, the first is the European Union's Digital Markets Act, which came into force this year. Not only does the bill push Apple to loosen some restrictions to allow third-party app store downloads (Europe only), but it also allows tech companies to launch their own, direct-to-consumer online stores without Apple and Google charging fees.
Second, with the rise of cross-platform applications, both Epic and Microsoft want to build a cross-platform game app store that can accommodate various types of terminal game products. Of course, Apple's high royalties with Google are also one of the reasons why the giants build their own app stores. In the past two years, the growth rate of users in overseas mature game markets has slowed down, the supply of new games has increased, and the profit margins of developers have been continuously compressed.
In addition, due to the large layoffs in the overseas game market and the poor macroeconomic environment, many game manufacturers are opening up sources and reducing expenditure. In the first two months of this year, overseas game companies have laid off nearly 10,000 people, including Lightforge, an overseas social game developer mentioned in Game Gyro, as mentioned yesterday, and Sony, EA, Unity, Embracer Group, Amazon Games, and many small and medium-sized game companies, and in less than three months in 2024, it will be close to the number of layoffs in the European and American game industries in 2023.
In this environment, the entry of new game channels such as Microsoft and Epic, and the introduction of new sharing methods, may be great news for game developers. Under strong competition, the mobile app store market may usher in different changes. Of course, it remains to be seen whether these two giants will be able to take more market out of the mouths of the two giants, Apple and Google. But it is foreseeable that the mobile app market "catfish" has appeared.