Apple, Microsoft Were Reportedly Close To Bring Xbox-Exclusive Games To iPhones--But Deal Didn't Fall Through

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 09 December 2021, 08:12 pm

Apple iPhone users could have had access to Xbox-exclusive games on their devices in the past.

In a series of emails dug up by The Verge, a purported deal between Microsoft and the Cupertino-based tech giant might have brought several AAA-level games to iPhone via the xCloud cloud gaming service.

The games, as per the emails, would be streamed into compatible iPhones from server farms equipped with processors from Xbox One and Xbox Series X consoles. As such, they won't rely much on the hardware capabilities of users' phones-and could basically run like they would on an actual console.

However, the deal didn't push through as Apple reportedly got a little wary of cloud gaming. As such, everything fizzled out as recently as last year, as per another report by The Verge.

These aforementioned emails involved Lori Wright, who worked as the head of business development for Microsoft Xbox. Wright was talking to "several key members" of App Store teams about the potential deal.

But in order to get the games on iOS, Microsoft proposed new App Store guidelines. This didn't sit well with Apple, who eventually rejected the guidelines in September 2020.

Reportedly, these guidelines involved a new version of xCloud that "was not compliant" with the current guidelines governing App Store Review, writes MacRumors.

On the contrary, Microsoft alleged that Apple actually rejected many of their proposals with regards to implementing their cloud gaming service on the latter's mobile platform. This reportedly left the former with no ability to release an actual Xbox Game Pass offering via the App Store.

Not Apple And Microsoft's First Potential AAA Gaming Rodeo

For the uninitiated, this actually isn't the first time that Apple was close to landing a AAA-level gaming deal with Microsoft and Xbox. That's because during the earliest days of the "Halo" franchise (which is perhaps the most important Xbox exclusive of all time), the first-person shooter was supposed to be a Mac exclusive.

Yes, you read that right. Macs, which no hardcore gamer would associate with mainstream gaming these days, were supposed to run the first "Halo" game.

This is mainly due to original "Halo" developer Bungie being known as the premier game developer for Macs back in the late 90s, according to Polygon. Furthermore, the first-ever footage of the game was actually shared by none other than Steve Jobs during Macworld 1999.

Here is the video of the reveal:

It was such a big deal back then that when Microsoft bought Bungie soon after, Steve Jobs apparently made an "angry" phone call to then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

According to AppleInsider, it was bad enough that Ballmer wanted to "placate" Jobs by promising that other big-name games will still come to Macs. As a result, "Halo: Combat Evolved" did come to Apple systems, two years after its initial Xbox debut in 2001.

The gaming industry would have been very different if that deal fell through.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce