Microsoft: App Store rules for cloud games make for bad experience

Microsoft has criticized the new App Store rules that Apple has put in place for cloud gaming. According to the company, cloud gaming services cannot provide a good user experience due to the restrictions imposed by Apple.

A spokesman for Microsoft told The Verge. Although Apple has relaxed the rules for cloud gaming, Microsoft does not think that a good game service can be built with this. The restrictions to work with, according to the company, cause a poor user experience: “gamers want to start a game directly from the app’s catalog, just like with movies and music, and not be forced to download more than a hundred apps in order to play individual games from the cloud “.

Despite the statements, it is not yet clear whether Microsoft will bring its game streaming service xCloud to iOS; to The Verge, the spokesperson did not give a definite answer. It is also not yet clear from Google whether the new rules will be used to bring Stadia to iOS.

Apple released the new rules for game streaming services on iOS on Friday. The new rules allow individual games available in the App Store to be offered as part of a streaming service. That service then works as a kind of catalog app that collects and links to all individual apps. All collected games must then link to their individual App Store page, except that the games run based on the game service’s streaming technology.