Xbox Store mobile, or whatever, manages to create “Steam for Mobile”, is one of Microsoft’s big targets for the all-important video game market. And now you have a free hand to launch it with the support of the main platforms: iOS and Android.

The changes that Apple will have to make (much regretfully) to comply with the European Digital Markets Act, which we talked to you about in depth yesterday in the special we recommend must allow third-party competition with the App Storethe most profitable digital software business on the planet and also the most closed.

For starters, and as a result of Apple’s operational changes, Epic Games have already announced this Fortnite will return to iOS in 2024. Not only that, but it will do so as part of a the new Epic Games Store for the Apple mobile platform. It will be the first time one of the top mobile titles will be available to play since Fortnite for iOS was removed from the App Store in 2020, sparking an ongoing legal battle.

Fortnite will return to iOS in Europe in 2024, distributed in the upcoming @EpicGames Store for iOS. Stay tuned for details as we figure out the regulatory schedule. We will continue to argue to the courts and regulators that Apple is breaking the law. https://t.co/MHh6EGVinC

— Epic Games Newsroom (@EpicNewsroom) January 25, 2024

Although the regulatory schedule has yet to be determined and Epic still has its reservations expressed by its boss Sweeney (“new rules are erratic new example of harmful compliance”) all indicate that there will be more options when it comes to installing and playing on iPhones. And it won’t be the only company planning to get into Apple’s mobile phones. And in the hundreds of millions who use iOS.

Microsoft and Steam for mobile

Microsoft’s top executives, led by Xbox boss Phil Spencer, have made no secret of the company’s belief that the real future of video games extends to mobile devices. Although there was more talk during the Activision purchase operation about monopoly concentrations, regulatory conditions or fighting with Sony over Call of Duty, we may have overlooked that the operation also included the assets of King, one of the largest global giants of mobile games with an IP as important as Candy Crush. Not to mention Blizzard’s Diablo Immortal or Call of Duty Mobile.

It is said that the money that Microsoft paid in the largest acquisition operation in the history of video games was especially valued for the possibility of acquiring this mobile game maker. Even a year ago, Spencer himself openly declared Microsoft’s interest in competing with the App Store and Google Play with its own platform and talked about “regulatory conditions” that they would allow it.

If we add to the purchase of the Activision group Apple’s changes that should enable Xbox Mobile for iOS, then white and in a bottle: the dream ‘Steam for mobile’ is closer. If there’s a company with the potential to do this, it’s Microsoft..