It's being reported that Microsoft is preparing to launch a new app store for games on iPhones and Android smartphones as soon as next year if its $75bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard is cleared by regulators, according to the head of its Xbox business, Phil Spencer.

The Financial Times (FT) reports that "New rules requiring Apple and Google to open up their mobile platforms to app stores owned and operated by other companies are expected to come into force from March 2024 under the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

Phil Spencer stated in an interview at the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that "We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play.

Microsoft and Apple have tussled for years over how the software giant’s cloud-based gaming service, which is part of Xbox Game Pass, operates on iPhones.

Microsoft has argued Apple’s App Store rules restrict its ability to offer cloud gaming through a single app that runs natively on the iPhone, forcing users to access the service via a web browser, resulting in lower performance.

Apple has denied it blocks cloud gaming apps, but App Store rules require providers to list each game on the App Store individually. This is similar to restrictions on Amazon’s Kindle ereader app wherein Apple doesn't allow individual games to be purchased from a storefront within native apps. For more on this, read the full Financial Times report.