Epic Games unveiled its new game strategy for mobile game stores yesterday in a move that was driven by new regulation in Europe as well as its ongoing battles with big platforms.
The company said it is fast approaching a quantum leap in Epic’s efforts to bring its games to players on mobile devices. If you recall, it was booted off the app stores after it filed its antitrust lawsuits against Google and Apple, and that case went through the courts.
Meanwhile, the European Union implemented its Digital Markets Act regulating what the big platforms could do when it came to prohibiting rivals such as Epic from promoting alternatives. The result of that regulation could bring Fortnite back to mobile soon.
Fortnite will be returning to iOS in the European Union, Epic said yesterday, and the Epic Games Store will be coming to Android worldwide and iOS in the European Union bringing all developers great terms: a store fee of 12% for payments that Epic processes, and 0% on third party payments.
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And Epic said it plans to bring its own mobile games including Fortnite to other mobile stores that give all developers a great deal. Earlier, Epic had said Apple was dragging its feet in a demonstration of “malicious non-compliance” with the EU’s regulations. Disputes are still ongoing.
And, Epic Games said it will be ending distribution partnerships with mobile stores that serve as “rent collectors” without competing robustly and serving all developers fairly, even if those stores offer us a special deal for own games. That was a rather cryptic statement, considering it’s taking Fortnite back to the app stores in Europe. But it’s really just a reference to Samsung, as you can see below.
Epic also said it is today announcing that Fortnite and other games will be leaving the Samsung Galaxy Store in protest of Samsung’s anticompetitive decision to block side-loading by default on Samsung Android devices, and as a result of public revelations in the U.S. Epic v Google lawsuit of ongoing Google proposals to Samsung to restrain competition in the market for Android app distribution. Google has made payments to Android phone makers to be the default store on their devices.
Epic said it has long been advocating for the rights of stores to exist and compete fairly on iOS and Android, and progress is spreading across the globe, in the form of Europe’s DMA, similar laws in the U.K. and Japan, regulatory investigations around the world, and victory in the Epic v Google litigation in the U.S.
As operators of the Epic Games Store, Epic said it will take advantage of this opportunity to bring all developers a great deal on its store. And as game developers themselves, the team at Epic will do everything it can to support other stores that strive to bring all developers their own great deals.
Epic is also announcing that its mobile games will come to AltStore on iOS in the EU, and the company expects to announce support for at least two other third-party stores soon. The AltStore recently went live after compliance with the Digital Markets Act in Europe.
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