Microsoft says Apple's App Store changes still create a bad experience for gamers, who want a catalog app and not to “be forced to download over 100 apps”
Apple is changing its App Store rules to allow game streaming services, which let people play video games over the internet …
Context & Ripple Effects
This closes one chapter and opens another in the xCloud-on-iOS standoff. In August, Apple had confirmed that [[a:956557|cloud services like xCloud and Stadia violated its guidelines outright because it could not review each streamed title]] — a hard block dating back to rules that since March had kept iOS users cut off from rival services from Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia (Bloomberg's coverage of the ban).
The revised guidelines now permit streaming apps, but with a catch that guts the model: every game must ship as an individual App Store download. Microsoft's response — gamers want one catalog app, not 'over 100' installs — signals the concession doesn't unlock xCloud as designed, setting up the argument it would later take to regulators, including [[a:874277|its July 29 comments to the UK CMA that Apple's guideline changes still aren't enough to run a native Xbox Cloud Gaming app]].
First-order effects
- Microsoft cannot launch Xbox Cloud Gaming on iOS as a single catalog app; any iOS presence would mean listing each streamed title separately, which Microsoft frames as an unacceptable experience for gamers.
- Apple gets a public rejection of what was framed as a compromise, leaving the guidelines technically open to streaming but practically unusable for the biggest would-be entrant.
Second-order effects
- Google and Nvidia, named alongside Microsoft in coverage of the original ban, face the same individual-download structure — meaning no major cloud gaming service has a viable path to a native iOS catalog app under these rules.
- With the bilateral route exhausted, the dispute migrates to antitrust venues; Microsoft's later submission to the UK CMA turns this specific grievance into regulatory evidence against Apple's review process.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, app store gatekeeping over cloud-streamed content gets settled by regulators rather than guideline revisions — each Apple concession that preserves per-title control becomes fresh material for cases like the CMA's.
- The individual-download requirement pushes subscription gaming platforms toward browser-based workarounds on locked-down platforms, splitting their product into native where allowed and web elsewhere.
The trend: Cloud gaming's access to closed mobile platforms is being decided less by app store guideline tweaks than by the regulatory scrutiny those tweaks keep provoking.