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Bloomberg

Microsoft Plans Mobile-Game Store, Vying With Apple, Google

The Store Will Debut With Microsoft’s Own Games, Offering Discounts On In-Game Items

Microsoft Corp. will launch its own online store for mobile-game consumables in July, creating an alternative to Apple Inc. and Google’s app stores and their fees. The browser-based store will debut with Microsoft’s own games, offering discounts on in-game items associated with titles like Candy Crush Saga. Xbox President Sarah Bond announced the move Thursday at the Bloomberg Technology Summit. Later, Microsoft will open the store to other publishers.

Bond says the store is launching on the web, versus an app, so it’s “accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what, independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores.”

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