- Activision Blizzard was once working on its own alternate app store that would house Android games, pitching it as the “Steam of Mobile.”
- The initial plan for the store was to launch in 2019 or 2020 and charge about 10 to 12% transaction fees. The store also aimed to be on iOS eventually.
- Activision Blizzard instead pursued a deal with Google as the alternate app store was deemed not “financially attractive.”
Android has always had the Google Play Store as the omnipresent source for downloading and installing apps and games on our phones. You can still install your apps and games from other sources, but most users decide not to bother themselves with the chore. But that doesn’t stop developers from trying to build their own app stores to compete with the Play Store. Had some things gone differently, we could have had a “Steam of Mobile” equivalent app store dedicated to Android games from none other than Activision Blizzard.
During the ongoing Epic vs Google trial, it has emerged that Activision Blizzard had its own “Project Boston” that it was working on. As The Verge reports, citing internal emails and other documents seen during the courtroom hearing, Activision Blizzard planned to build its own mobile game store. This would have been either in partnership with Epic Games and Supercell or independently by itself. Users would have been able to download this alternate app store from the internet, sideload it onto their Android phone, and would then be able to purchase, download, and install games.