Microsoft has published new operating principles for its app store. This is a consequence of the announced deal with Activision Blizzard. The company decided to show regulators its openness and desire to encourage competition. However, so far we are talking only about the PC store.Microsoft announced the changes on February 9 in its official blog.
“The process of regulating the transaction begins at a time when the governments of many countries are adopting new laws that encourage competition in the application markets and beyond,” the company said in a statement. — We want regulators and the public to know that Microsoft is striving to adapt to new laws. And the new principles will help us in this.”
Thus, Microsoft wants to convince regulators of its good intentions and focus on respecting the rights of developers and users on its platform.
The formed principles cover four main areas:
- quality, security, protection and confidentiality;responsibility;
- fairness and transparency;
- developers have a choice.
- 11 principles of an open app store
Any developer will have access to the store as long as it meets Microsoft’s quality and security standards.
- The company will continue to monitor the safety of users, ensuring compliance with the rules on the part of developers.
- Microsoft will ensure the privacy of users by providing them with data management and usage tools.
- The company will continue to support its own applications and apply the same standards to them as to third-party products.
- Private information and data from the store will not be used to compete with applications from other developers.
- Microsoft will treat all applications equally, without exceptions, without giving advantages to its products in terms of ranking.
- The rules of promotion and marketing in the store will be transparent to everyone — they will be applied consistently and objectively.
- Developers will not be required to use the Microsoft payment system.
- Developers will be able to provide users with more favorable conditions in other app stores.
- The company will not punish developers who decide to use a third-party payment system or choose other conditions for distributing their product in other stores.
- Developers will be able to communicate with customers through their applications for business purposes — whether it’s pricing terms or various offers of their services.
- Separately, the company stressed that developers have the right to use any methods of distributing games and applications other than the Microsoft Store.
This can be either third-party stores or downloading directly from the manufacturer’s website.
Will these rules apply to Xbox?Microsoft stated that, first of all, the principles listed above are formed for PC and mobile devices.
Speaking about Xbox, the company again stressed that it sells consoles at a loss. The costs of manufacturing devices are covered largely by the proceeds from the sale of games on the platform.
However, Microsoft is still ready for some changes. From February 9, the first seven items from the list will now apply to Xbox. In the future, the company also intends to “narrow the gap between platforms in the remaining principles.” However, there is no talk of fully applying all the rules to the store of your console yet.
The company also noted that Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation at least as long as the current agreements between Sony and Activision Blizzard are in effect. At the same time, Microsoft intends to continue supporting such franchises on as many platforms as possible: “We are also interested in taking similar steps to support the Nintendo platform. We believe this is the right approach for the industry, gamers and our business.”