Vole wants to provide open access to developers who meet privacy and security standards. The Tame Apple Press has been sulking that it is only doing it to win approval for its blockbuster acquisition of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard.

The $68.7 billion purchase, announced last month, was the biggest gaming industry deal in history.

Microsoft president, Brad Smith, told reporters he had previewed the app store policies with US lawmakers and received "a positive reaction."

"Our goal is to build what's called a universal store for games," he added. "In other words, a store that anyone can access on any device on any platform to purchase or download any game that a developer chooses."

Rules for the app store were modelled on antitrust legislation under consideration by the United States and other countries, Microsoft said in a blog post.

"We have developed these principles in part to address Microsoft's growing role and responsibility as we start the process of seeking regulatory approval in capitals around the world for our acquisition of Activision Blizzard," the company said in the posting.

Other commitments made by Microsoft in the blog post were that its own apps in its store would be held to the same standard as apps from competitors, and that it would not use non-public information from its app store to compete with rivals.

It committed to refraining from "unreasonable preferencing or ranking" of Microsoft apps over others.