Microsoft and Facebook blast Apple for restrictive rules on gaming apps - CNBC

Earlier this week, Microsoft said it would be launching its xCloud gaming service as part of a subscription service called Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on Sept.

The platform Microsoft had designed for Apple devices only supported one game, which Microsoft said was because of Apple's App Store policies.

Microsoft now says it would be unable to launch its game streaming service commercially on iOS due to these restrictions.

"Unfortunately, we do not have a path to bring our vision of cloud gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to gamers on iOS via the Apple App Store," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement Friday.

"Apple stands alone as the only general purpose platform to deny consumers from cloud gaming and game subscription services like Xbox Game Pass.

They added that Microsoft was "committed" to bringing cloud gaming to the iOS platform.

Apple has its own gaming service that competes with game subscription offerings from the likes of Microsoft, Google and Nvidia, called Apple Arcade+.

Microsoft once had its own Twitch-like game streaming service called Mixer but recently decided to close it down, encouraging users to switch over to Facebook Gaming.