After a viral social media post seemingly hinted at a potential partnership between Xbox and Kick, the oft-criticized and heavily controversial live-streaming platform that is home to some of the world’s most popular streamers, Microsoft and Xbox have come out to deny any such partnership.
In a statement released on Twitter that was in response to a user pointing out Kick’s controversy, the Xbox brand account noted that there is no partnership and that the platform “independently” published its app on the Xbox store.
It also further iterated that the company is “actively evaluating it under our Store policies.”
Apps that do not comply with these policies are removed.
According to a description found by Kotaku, the dedicated standalone app asserts itself as such:
“KICK’s a live-streaming platform where creators kick it with their communities. (Yeah, we said the thing…) Our creators march to the beat of their own drum, as do we, disrupting our opps with a 95-5 subscription split, our creator incentive program, and the freedom to multi-stream. That’s why the likes of xQc, Asmongold, and MaxHolloway all pick KICK.”
At the moment, it’s unclear whether Kick will be permitted to stay, or if, after an independent review, Microsoft will remove the self-published app from its storefront.
The Original Allegations Came After A Rather Convincing Piece Of Merchandise
Of course, there’s a good chance that this was a self-created piece of merchandise, but Xbox has never shied away from collaborating with other creators, IPs or initiatives to design their own tech.
As far as we can tell with our limited research, it doesn’t look like there’s ever been a delisted app from the storefront. There’s been dozens of examples of delisted games, almost none related to controversy, unless bugs are a controversy on their own, but apps on the storefront have typically been things like Netflix or Hulu or Twitch.
Whether this becomes the first major instance of something being deleted for violating platform policies remains to be seen. What is clear, at the moment, is that Xbox and Kick are not in any sort of official partnership.
- founded
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October, 2022
- founders
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Ed Craven
- number of users
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1m+
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