Xbox Boss Blames Court Decision For Android App Store Delay

The president of Xbox, Sarah Bond, has told fans the company is in a holding pattern regarding its ability to sell games in its Xbox app on Android devices.

Sarah Bond said recently that Xbox players “will be able to play and purchase Xbox games directly from the Xbox App on Android” in November. But as the month ebbs away, no such access had been granted.

In October a US judge effectively told Google that its party for one was coming to an end, at least temporarily.

Google was ordered to “effectively open up the Google Play app store to competition for three whole years”, The Verge reported.

“Google will have to distribute rival third-party app stores within Google Play, and it must give rival third-party app stores access to the full catalog of Google Play apps, unless developers opt out individually.”

On Thursday Bond took to Bluesky – the social media platform du jour for those fleeing X, Elon Musk’s unusual reimagining of Twitter – to explain why the deadline she set just weeks ago wouldn’t be met.

“At Xbox, we want to offer players more choice on how and where they play, including being able to play and buy games directly from the Xbox app,” she said.

“I recently shared our ambition to unlock these features first with the Google Play Store on Android devices in the US. Due to a temporary administrative stay recently granted by the courts, we are currently unable to launch these features as planned.”

Bond said Xbox is “eager to launch”, and that “our team has the functionality built and ready to go live as soon as the court makes a final decision”.

Until then, the sound of silence.