Microsoft Reportedly Trying to Get xCloud on iOS Through a Web App by 2021

Microsoft xCloud

Apple redefined its App Store rules to explicitly prohibit game streaming apps, which prevented Microsoft from getting its xCloud Xbox streaming tech on iPhones and iPads – but in keeping with a brand new report, the company will try to circumvent the rules by letting gamers entry xCloud through an online app.

Microsoft had added xCloud to its Game Pass subscription service, and in a recent meeting, EVP and gaming lead Phil Spencer confidently informed workers that Game Pass would be coming to iPhones and iPads via a ‘direct browser-based solution,’ sources informed Business Insider. Microsoft is reportedly aiming to launch its iOS version in 2021.

Apple’s redefined App Store terms weren’t specifically phrased to maintain out competitors; particularly, the corporate opposes game streaming providers for providing catalogs of games that Apple can’t approve title by title. It’s unclear whether Microsoft’s web app resolution would adhere to Apple’s rules.

Working a streaming service by means of an online app is precisely how the newly-announced Amazon Luna is planning to function. Amazon is assured sufficient on this workaround that it plans to launch on iPhones and iPads first when it launches its beta within the coming months, with Android assist to observe.

However crucially, Amazon worked with Apple’s Safari team to get Luna running as an above-board internet app, Luna’s head of engineering informed Engadget in a rundown of the upcoming service. And the partnership likely won’t stop when the service goes live, Luna head Marc Whitten informed the publication:

“We’ll continue working with Apple,” Whitten told Engadget. “We’d love to do a native experience.”

Partnerships with me but not for thee?

It’s unclear whether Microsoft is investigating an identical association with Apple to develop its xCloud Game Pass web app. But it surely might be a query of company relationships: Google’s Stadia streaming service could have rolled out to every Android phone as an app in June, and has worked on PCs and Macs by means of a Chrome browser, but it’s nowhere to be found on iOS.

Notably, Amazon and Apple renewed ties earlier this year when the latter allowed the Prime Video apps on iOS, iPadOS and tvOS to allow in-app purchases. Amazon had beforehand used the favored yet clumsy workaround of directing clients out of the app to purchase on a browser with the intention to evade Apple’s 30% reduce, however appeared to have labored out a deal to get shoppers buying by means of the app.

The deal likely slashed the percentage Amazon gave to Apple: Apple allegedly convinced Amazon in 2016 to convey Prime Video to iOS devices by agreeing to slash its cut to 15%, according to a Bloomberg report in June. While there’s nothing connecting that deal to Luna, it’s logical to hint any favorable relationship between the companies regarding mobile products to this negotiation.

As that is the first we’re listening to about Microsoft’s xCloud Game Pass internet app workaround, we’ll wait to see whether it follows Amazon’s lead as a collaboration with Apple or if it takes a unique route to land on gamers’ iPhones and iPads.