Remember when Apple purported to let cloud gaming providers like Microsoft xCloud and Google Stadia into the App Store while basically shredding their business models? Do you remember how Microsoft responded that asking gamers to download hundreds of unique programmes in order to enjoy a catalogue of cloud games would be a horrible experience? 

In actuality, Microsoft was eager to accommodate several of Apple's requests, even offering to bring triple-A, Xbox-exclusive titles to the iPhone to sweeten the bargain. According to a new series of private emails obtained by many enthusiastic people  in the aftermath of the Epic v. Apple trial.

Instead of relying on your phone's local processing capacity, these games would have ran on Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) infrastructure, streaming from faraway server farms populated with Xbox One and Xbox Series X processors. If the agreement had been reached, you could have theoretically purchased a copy of a game like Halo Infinite directly from Apple's App Store and launched it like any other app — rather than paying $14.99 a month for an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription with a limited catalogue of games and then having to use Microsoft's web-based App Store. But, more importantly, Microsoft was trying to introduce its Netflix-like collection of xCloud games to the Android Market at a period when Apple was wary about cloud gaming in whole. But, more importantly, Microsoft was trying to introduce its Netflix-like collection of xCloud games to the Android Market at a period when Apple was wary about cloud gaming in whole. 

The emails, which were exchanged between Microsoft Xbox head of corporate advancement Lori Wright as well as several leading figures of Apple's App Store teams, show that Microsoft had a number of reservations about stuffing an entire service's worth of Xbox games into individual App Store apps as of February 2020. Wright expressed concerns about the 'complexity and administration of generating hundreds to thousands of apps,' how they'd have to update each one to solve any flaws, and how all many app icons may lead to cluttered iOS homescreens, among other things. 

'We feel that the shortcomings mentioned here will cause users to be frustrated and confused, resulting in a sub-par experience on Apple devices relative to the identical experience on all other platforms,' she said.

However, by March of last year, Microsoft was suggesting that it could, in fact, construct hundreds or thousands of separate applications to submit to the Android Market — as long as it could treat those applications more like bookmarks, rather than putting the whole cloud gaming broadcasting stack into each one. She contended that this is identical to how watchOS applications previously functioned.

'If we have a single streaming technology app, it will be approximately 150 MB in size, but the other applications will be around 30 MB in size and will not need to be updated when the streaming technology is updated.' Users will have a better experience as a result of this.'

Wright also mentioned bringing exclusive triple-A Xbox titles to iOS, claiming that they, too, would require 'the streaming tech bundle as a separate app to offer the correct experience.'

'Having access to these exclusive AAA titles in addition to the Game Pass games would be a really exciting possibility for iOS customers,' she said.

Obviously, none of this took place. Microsoft rejected Apple's new App Store standards in September 2020, and a month later unveiled the online workaround version of xCloud. It was delivered in April.

Where did discussions fail? According to Microsoft, Apple was the one that rejected its suggestions, because Apple insisted on mandating every game to incorporate the whole streaming stack and would not agree to anything else.

'Our plan for introducing games through individual applications was created to adhere to App Store standards.' As stated in the first email, Apple declined it based on our desire for a single streaming tech app to support the different gaming applications. Forcing each game to incorporate our streaming tech stack proved unfeasible from a support and technical standpoint, and would produce an immensely terrible user experience,' says Xbox Cloud Gaming CVP Kareem Choudhry in a statement to The reporters who attended the meet.

Late last April, Apple's App Store games manager Mark Grimm said that wasn't the only reason the firms couldn't come to an agreement — money could have played a role as well. He told colleagues that Microsoft was now considering adding the streaming code in specific Xbox titles on the App Store. 

'THEY'RE NOT TRYING TO GET AWAY WITH PAYING US'

And Apple confirms to The Verge that money was involved. 'Unfortunately, Microsoft offered a version of xCloud that was not consistent with our App Store Review Guidelines, notably the necessity to make in-app purchases to unlock new features or functionality inside an app,' Apple spokesperson Adam Dema said in a statement.

Microsoft's Choudhry denies that IAP had any influence on the final decision. 'The grounds for rejection had nothing to do with in-app purchase capabilities; for example, we presently deliver Xbox Cloud Gaming through a single Xbox Game Pass app in the Google Play Store without IAP enabled, and we would do the same through the App Store if authorised.' 

Choudhry's broad take on the situation is as follows:

We investigated several alternatives for bringing Cloud Gaming via Xbox Game Pass to Apple devices, always with the user experience in mind, which we decided would be best achieved through a single app. Apple's Store regulations would have required us to start each game as a separate app; while we never preferred this method, we investigated it as an option in the spirit of exploring any solution to provide Cloud Gaming to iOS users. However, between that email in March 2020 and our announcement to The Verge in September 2020, Apple rejected our recommendations, leaving us unable to launch an unified Xbox Game Pass service through the App Store. We adjusted our technical priorities and are now using a browser-based approach to provide Xbox Cloud Gaming to iOS users via web browsers.