Games

Popular Xbox Feature is Making a Comeback

Published

1 month ago

October 18, 2024

Christoph Rediske

Key Takeaways

Table of Contents

Xbox app on Android will allow game purchases again due court ruling.
Xbox fans excited for more flexibility; some concerns about phasing out consoles.
Apple users may feel left out as iOS version lacks in-app purchase feature.

The ability to buy and play games on the Xbox app on Android is going to be coming back. The popular feature has been missed by many fans of the Xbox family of consoles who use Android mobile devices.

This change is coming in the wake of a California jury deciding against Google, declaring that the company has an illegal monopoly via the Android Play store. As a result of this verdict, Google can’t prohibit in-app payment methods for at least three years and must allow for access to third-party Android app stores.

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Over on Twitter, Xbox President Sarah Bond announced the upcoming features. In a brief statement, the president explained that the recent court ruling regarding Google’s Play Store is allowing “more choice and flexibility,” and that as a result, Xbox will be offering Android users the opportunity to purchase and play games directly through the Xbox app on their phones. Players will also be able to redeem codes through the app. These features will be arriving sometime in November, though Bond didn’t specify the exact date they’d be made available.

Xbox Fans React to App News

Xbox fans primarily seem to be pleased to hear the news, particularly those on the Android app. However, there are nonetheless some complaints from some of Xbox’s userbase. Some have lamented that this seems to be one more step in the perceived direction of Xbox killing off its own consoles in favor of allowing users to stream or use other devices entirely to play its games. Some have also taken the opportunity to take shots at Xbox for shutting down developers like Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin.

Others have also complained that these features aren’t available on iOS versions of the Xbox app either, and there’s no information on that changing, so Apple fans are feeling left out. However, judging by the tweet, it’s likely that these changes are coming now because Xbox will be able to sell games to users with purchases made in-app, rather than routing them through Google Play Billing and thereby surrendering a portion of the profit. Apple hasn’t changed in this regard, so Xbox would have to either raise prices on the platform or see losses on each game sold through the app to Apple users.

For the moment, Android users will need to wait and see when exactly this update arrives. More information will likely follow from Xbox in the coming weeks.

Xbox Series X

Microsoft’s ninth-generation console, the Xbox Series X is a powerful machine that can support 4K resolution and 60 fps, depending on the game. Released alongside the Xbox Series S, the Series X has a Custom AMD Zen 2 CPU, a Custom RDNA 2 GPU, and 16 GB of RAM.