Apple has announced a significant change that will have a monumental effect on the world of gaming on iPhone and iPad. Developers can now submit apps to the App Store that can stream games. This means that Xbox Cloud Gaming, NVIDIA GeForce Now and other services should soon have dedicated apps available for iOS and iPadOS.
Up to this point, Xbox Cloud Gaming and game streaming have been limited to web browser on iOS and iPadOS. While that made the games playable, it wasn’t as good an experience as a dedicated app. For example, the popular game Palworld It is only available on the iPhone or iPad if you use a browser.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming to the App Store
New opportunities for developers
“Apple is introducing new options for how apps globally can deliver in-app experiences to users. Including streaming games and mini-programs. “Developers can now ship a single app with the ability to stream all the games offered in their catalog.”Apple explained in a developer post.
Apps will also be able to provide enhanced discovery opportunities. Both for streaming games, mini-applications, mini-games, chatbots and add-ons found within your applications.
The impact on game discovery
The last part of that quote is interesting because it indicates that the move was also made to ffacilitate game discovery when using an iPhone or iPad. A dedicated app for Microsoft games could provide a simplified way to browse titles available through Xbox Game Pass that you could then play directly within an Xbox Cloud Gaming app.
Although the policy change comes after an antitrust investigation by the European Commission, Apple’s changes to the App Store will take effect worldwide.