Microsoft airs new app-store rules

Move seen as attempt to advance Activision Blizzard buy

While Microsoft had previously said it would honor Activision’s deals with Sony, the company said that it has told Sony it will make the popular games available after the existing agreements “so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love. We are also interested in taking similar steps to support Nintendo’s successful platform.”

Microsoft laid out new rules for its app store that it says avoid some of the concerns regulators have raised about its competitors’ sites and should help ease the path toward approval of its purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc.

The company also pledged Wednesday to keep making Call of Duty games for Sony Corp.’s rival PlayStation console.

The software titan’s top executives on Wednesday explained the app-store principles Microsoft would follow, including a pledge to not use any non-public data from its app store to compete with rival apps and to avoid “unreasonable preferencing our apps over others.” Microsoft also said it would not require developers to use its payment system for in-app purchases.

“We want to be clear with regulators and with the public that if this acquisition is approved, they can count on Microsoft to adapt to the rules that are emerging and run our business in a responsible way,” said Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith, at a press event in Washington. “We’re more focused on adapting to regulation than fighting against it.”

While Microsoft had previously said it would honor Activision’s deals with Sony, the company said that it has told Sony it will make the popular games available after the existing agreements “so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love. We are also interested in taking similar steps to support Nintendo’s successful platform.”

The event, which included comments by Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella and Sarah Bond, an Xbox vice president, come as lawmakers consider a bill that would place limits on app stores and force them to let users install outside apps. Microsoft has been a fierce and outspoken critic of how Apple Inc. runs its App Store.

“The open web happened and then what happened? App stores happened and the openness was thrown out,” Nadella said. “We’d like to get back to a place where there is an open web and there is a helpful way for new platforms to be born.”

Microsoft has already made changes to lower the fees it collects on apps and last year said that app-makers could use outside payment systems and keep all the fees, but that rule did not apply to video games, the Verge reported at the time.

With the announcement Wednesday, Smith made it clear that Microsoft has a view to assuaging regulator concerns about the $69 billion Activision deal.

“We recognize that there will be more scrutiny of any large acquisition that is being made by a large tech company, so it really behooves us to step forward quickly and proactively and be very transparent about how we will manage this business,” he said. “Let’s not just go out and explain why everybody should have no concerns. Let’s step up to the plate and adapt voluntarily.”

Microsoft and Apple have been engaged in a battle over rules that govern video-game sales on the iPhone maker’s ubiquitous App Store. Smith has argued regulators should take action, and the company sent an Xbox executive to testify on behalf of Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, in a court battle with Apple. Last month Nadella flagged the planned acquisition of game maker Activision Blizzard as a way to avoid paying Apple’s App Store commission fees by attracting gamers directly to mobile games like Candy Crush.

“Today, we face strong global competition from companies that generate more revenue from game distribution than we do from our share of games sales and subscriptions,” Nadella said on a conference call the day the deal was announced. “We need more innovation and investment in content creation and fewer constraints on distribution.”