Court order delays Microsoft’s plans to allow Xbox games to be purchased directly in the Xbox app on Android

On By Littum

Last month, Microsoft announced that thanks to a recent ruling, it would allow people to buy and play Xbox games directly from the Xbox app on Android starting in November. But as we reach the end of the month, it looks like those plans will have to wait a bit.

Xbox president Sarah Bond announced it X/Twitter on Wednesday that “a temporary administrative stay recently granted by the courts” has delayed the functionality. Still, Bond added that they are ready to launch with the feature as soon as they get the legal green light.

“At Xbox, we want to offer players more choice in how and where they play, including being able to play and buy games directly from the Xbox app,” Bond wrote. “I recently shared our ambition to unlock these features first with the Google Play Store on Android devices in the US, while other app stores adapt to meet consumer demand.”

“Due to a temporary administrative stay recently granted by the courts, we are currently unable to launch these features as planned,” she continued. “Our team has the functionality built and ready to go live as soon as the court makes a final decision. We’re eager to launch and give players more choice and flexibility.”

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A court order has delayed Microsoft’s plans to allow Xbox games to be purchased and played directly in the Xbox app on Android.

Microsoft announced its plans following a recent ruling by a US judge that forces Google to open its Play Store to competitors for three years. According to the ruling – the latest victory in Epic Games’ long-running antitrust battle against Google – Google will have third-party Android app stores in the Play Store and give third-party app stores full access to Google Play’s catalog of apps. However, Google promised to appeal the decision in a subsequent one blog post.

For Microsoft, the ruling meant that in theory it would be free to sell Xbox games on Android devices and allow them to be streamed as soon as they are purchased from the same app without having to use Google Play Billing. However, it is currently unclear what this court order will mean for Microsoft’s plans beyond simply delaying them.

The ability to extend purchases to the Google Play Store was just one of Microsoft’s latest moves to increase Xbox’s mobile footprint. In May, Bond announced that Microsoft planned to launch its own mobile game store in July, although that has been delayed. In the wake of Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which owns Candy Crush maker King, the company certainly has more firepower to bring to the mobile landscape.

Alex Stedman is Senior News Editor at IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.