14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has just expanded the availability of its Windows Phone Store in 42 new markets. In addition, the Redmond-based company has just announced new ratings requirements available for games published in Taiwan and Russia.
Developers who have yet to choose worldwide distribution for their apps can now return to Dev Center and choose this option in order to maximize the reach of their software to these new markets and customers.
According to Microsoft, customers in the following countries will have access to Windows Phone store starting this week:
Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo (DRC), Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
With the new 42 markets, Microsoft confirmed that its Windows Phone Store is now available online to customers in 113 markets across the globe.
Obviously, the number of markets where the Windows Phone Store is available will slowly increase in the following months, so stay tuned for more updates on this one.
In the same piece of news, regulatory commissions in Russia and Taiwan have asked and Microsoft has listened.
The new ratings requirements for games published in these two regions have been updated to reflect the new regulatory requirements. For more details on these, check out Microsoft’s original announcement.
Furthermore, Microsoft added via this update a privacy URL, so that developers could have an adequate privacy notice in place.
Microsoft further explained that “by adding a link to your privacy notice, we can surface this important information in the Windows Phone Store for review by users prior to downloading your app.”
Last but not least, the company has also added the ability to validate beta tester email addresses as part of the submission processor, which is expected to completely remove any errors and delays in the submission process.