Apple opens AppStore doors for Xbox Cloud Gaming, Luna and GeForce Now

It lasted until the last minute, but nothing can stop the future: from today, AppStore, the digital store for Apple devices, allows cloud gaming apps. This brings us to the natural question: Can’t you play Game Pass games on your iPhone? Actually yes, but with big nuances.

Let’s start with the most important thing: Effective immediately and through an official announcement, Apple is rethinking its digital store policies around the world, opening access to mini-apps and games from cloud services such as Xbox Cloud Gaming or GeForce Now. Sure, it opens the door, but it leaves the lock on: It’s created a new guide for developers that outlines what you can and can’t do in the AppStore after this change.

This will allow, for example, the official Xbox app for iOS to add a cloud gaming tab to Game Pass games, as has already been possible on Android devices since the Xbox Cloud Gaming beta. And the same applies to any initiative aimed at enabling gaming through gaming platforms and streaming services. Technically, everyone benefits from this: from the new Amazon Luna to Spain and the classics from the AntStream catalog.

Apple has been against offering this type of service and option for years, and the reason was not very clear: not being able to view content published from other platforms one by one, it did not enable this feature. Now, this movement will not only open new doors, but will also allow services like Netflix or Crunchyroll, with their own catalogs of games, to provide an alternative to redirecting their exclusive video games to the AppStore and having to download them from there.

Before and after playing on iPhone and iOS devices

Anyway, back to the original question: how was it possible to play Game Pass on an iPhone before? The way Xbox came out was more of a decision than anything else, as it used the fact that Xbox Cloud Gaming runs in browsers to offer a web interface tailored to Apple screens, promoting the creation of shortcuts to emulate the app. Stadia and Luna did the same thing back in the day.

Apple’s move is more than a gesture of goodwill: the European Commission is reviewing the AppStore situation and the company’s policies, and this initiative to offer cloud games is part of a set of measures to adapt to the market of the old continent. , including the ability to turn on more digital stores on your devices in addition to the AppStore itself.

In any case, all companies and services interested in mastering cloud gaming today already have applications that need to be updated. First of all, considering that mobile phones are the largest, most widespread and profitable gaming platform.

For its part, Apple is redirecting its policy and taking the opportunity to give new impetus to the idea that its latest production devices are also considered on video game platforms with games like Resident Evil 4 or Death Stranding, completing the initiative for everyone. . Especially for players.

In VidaExtra | When Steve Jobs introduced the PlayStation emulator at the Apple conference

In VidaExtra | Apple is more lost than Bambi on Mother’s Day: It launched 20 new games to spice up the Arcade, but not all of them are what we need