A series of e-mails discovered and published by The Verge reveals that Apple repeatedly rejected Microsoft’s efforts to make its exclusive Xbox game titles available in the iOS App Store, even after Microsoft conceded to some of its conditions.
Last year, Microsoft had spent a long time trying to reason with Apple to allow Xbox games to be downloaded from the App Store, even going so far as to offer to make available some of its most popular Xbox-exclusive titles to iOS users, if Apple would collaborate.
However, Apple had stubbornly refused, laying out a set of App Store guidelines that went fully against Microsoft’s Xbox business model, and in the end left Microsoft on its own to seek alternative solutions.
It turns out that Microsoft had actually shared Apple’s concern and conceded, offering to convert all of its games into hundreds of thousands of individual, pint-sized apps from which App Store clients could pick and choose at their will. The packages would only download the software strictly necessary to play the game, which Microsoft said would have been around 30MB per game.
And, Microsoft had proffered, if a user wanted to stream a game they were playing, they would need to download the Game Pass app, which would be offered separately on the App Store. This would allow Apple devices to stream gameplay by harnessing the power of their Xbox rather than their iPhone or iPad, and stream via remote servers.
Microsoft argued that this would significantly increase the size of the game apps, as it would go up from roughly 30 MB each to 150 MB—a five-fold leap. This would only inconvenience users rather than simplify their experience, as not everyone wants to stream the games they play, but neither would avid streamers need a separate bundle of identical streaming tech in every single app.
“If we have a single streaming tech app, it will be around 150 MB, but the other apps will only be roughly 30 MB and will not need to be updated when the streaming tech is updated. This will be a better experience for users,” wrote Lori Wright, Microsoft Xbox Head of Business Development.
After the continued rejection, Microsoft ended up going their own way and building a Safari browser-based solution for bringing Xbox Cloud Gaming to Apple users.
