Microsoft’s plan to launch its Project xCloud game streaming service on Android — but not iOS — is casting the company’s criticisms of Apple over the past few months in a new light.
Microsoft terminated its xCloud game streaming test on iOS on Wednesday after announcing the xCloud app will only be launching on Android devices in September.
Microsoft didn’t provide an explanation for why its iOS test ended early, but told The Verge, “it’s our ambition to scale cloud gaming through Xbox Game Pass available on all devices.”
The issue may have to do with Apple’s App Store restrictions, including rules about in-app purchases.
Microsoft has confirmed it's ending the xCloud on iOS app test today. Apple's App Store policies appear to be preventing xCloud from launching on iOS, and the future of the service on iPhones and iPads remains unclear. Details here: https://t.co/ERQz8Uzaei pic.twitter.com/w3fDr6JrmJ
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 5, 2020
This to be clear is one of the main reasons Microsoft has been raising antitrust complaints about the Apple App Store recently.
— Dina Bass (@dinabass) August 5, 2020
Update, 3 p.m. PT: Apple told Business Insider that the reason for not allowing xCloud on the App Store is related to not being able to review each game.
Not having xCloud available to iOS users would be a big roadblock for Microsoft’s cloud gaming ambitions. The service, similar to Google’s Stadia offering, lets users play high-powered Xbox games such as Halo on their smartphones.
Microsoft has criticized Apple for the tight control it exercises over its App Store. Microsoft President Brad Smith told Politico in June that the time has come “for a much more focused conversation about the nature of app stores, the rules that are being put in place, the prices and tolls that are being extracted, and whether there is really a justification in antitrust law for everything that has been created.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked to testify before Congress last week on antitrust issues along with the chief executives of Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Cook was grilled on Apple’s decision to remove screen time and parental control apps from its App Store, just after the tech giant released its own competing feature as part of iOS 12.
Here’s reaction from Basecamp founder David Heinemeier Hansson, who was embroiled in an App Store-related controversy with Apple over its new email app Hey earlier this summer.
Monopoly harm eventually moves all the way up until the point where customers are held hostage. How is Apple customers better off from being cut off from xCloud? They're not. It's consumer harm. https://t.co/v9IzcjRh66
— DHH (@dhh) August 5, 2020
Apple has its own gaming subscription service called Apple Arcade.
The Information reported that Microsoft’s Smith advised the House antitrust subcommittee on competition in the tech industry and took the opportunity to call out Apple’s current practices.
The House subcommittee did not ask Microsoft to testify at the hearing; the company has largely escaped the antitrust scrutiny its peers are experiencing, having faced its own investigation in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But Microsoft’s bid for the wildly popular social media app TikTok could put the company back in the hot seat.
