(San Francisco) Microsoft pledged on Wednesday to design an “open” and competition-friendly application store, hoping to convince the authorities to give the green light to its acquisition of video game studios Activision Blizzard.
Posted at 8:21 p.m.
“The world needs open app markets and that needs open app stores,” said Brad Smith, president of the IT group, in a statement posted on Microsoft’s blog.
He details the principles that his company promises to respect on its future “app store”, which will be accessible “to all developers, as long as they respect reasonable and transparent standards in terms of quality and security”.
Microsoft unveiled in January its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard, the publisher of call of duty and candy Crush, especially. The $69 billion deal would be the biggest tech M&A deal ever to take place.
But it comes in a context of tensions around the technology giants (Apple, Google, Meta and Amazon), accused of abuse of dominant position by various governments and institutions around the world.
So the Windows and Xbox group took the lead. “We have been adjusting to antitrust rules for two decades,” said Brad Smith. “We seek more to adjust to regulations than to fight against them”.
Its list of commitments resembles in part a list of indirect reproaches to Google and Apple, which share the global market for the distribution of mobile applications, via their stores on their operating systems, iOS and Android.
“We will apply the same rules to our apps as to those of competitors”. “We will not use non-public information derived from our app store to compete with other developers.” “We will not force publishers to use our payment system.” “We will not prevent developers from communicating directly with their customers […] “.
Many publishers and authorities accuse the Apple brand’s App Store and its neighbor’s Play Store of violating these principles. They believe that Apple and Google take too high commissions and favor their own apps to the detriment of others.
The two companies deny and claim to be concerned above all with the safety and comfort of users.
In the late 1990s, Windows software drew similar complaints, but regulators have since changed their focus.
“Windows has evolved to become an open platform used by the greatest number, and we want video games to take the same path,” said Brad Smith.