Epic Games plans to add nearly 20 third-party games to its mobile app store worldwide on Android and in the European Union on iOS and launch its free mobile games program starting with Bloons TD 6 And Infinity Dungeon: Apogee. It is also promising to pay some iOS fees for developers who are part of the program to overcome what Epic calls a major barrier to releasing from the App Store.
“Our goal here is not just to launch a bunch of different stores in different locations, but to create a single, cross-platform store where, in the age of cross-platform gaming, if you buy a game or digital items in one place, you have the opportunity to own them everywhere,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney told reporters during a press briefing. Under this program, Epic will offer new free games every month. in the store before possibly moving on to a weekly program.
To sweeten the deal for developers who participate in the free games program on iOS, Epic will help cover the cost of using third-party marketplaces. For a year, he will pay these developers Core Technology Fee (CTF): A fee of 50 euro cents is levied on each installation of an iOS application using third-party stores after exceeding one million annual downloads. (Apple gives developers with less than $10 million in global revenue a three-year on-ramp.)
Epic has been an outspoken critic of the CTF. In a blog post shared with The edgehe laments that “even if a developer decides to list a single game on the Epic Games Store, they must pay the fees”. every time all of their games are downloaded to iPhone or iPad, whether from the Apple App Store or an alternative store. These fees are “ruinous to any hope of a competing store getting a foothold,” Sweeney says. And even though Epic will lose money paying CTF for those developers, he says, “we feel like we’re the ones who need to break the deadlock there.”
The company hopes the EU will take action over what it sees as a violation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which governs digital competition. Epic writes in its blog that covering the fees “is not financially viable for all third-party app stores or for Epic in the long term, but we will do so while the European Commission investigates the failure to comply with the law by Apple.”
It’s the latest maneuver in a long-running fight between Epic and mobile operating system developers Apple and Google. The game maker has challenged the two companies’ practices in the United States with mixed success, and it hopes the European Union will take its case. The iOS Epic Games Store is reserved for the EU because Apple was forced to open its ecosystem there as part of the DMA; it continues to say that its restrictions elsewhere are to protect the security of its system.
Epic says many mobile game developers aren’t on its store because Apple and Google discourage them with restrictions and fees. The company cites anonymous game developers – whose identities have been obscured to avoid retaliation from Apple, it says – citing the CTF. as a deterrent.
“We won’t really have freedom in the app stores, even in Europe… unless the DMA is strictly enforced”
Epic has recorded far fewer installations of its mobile store since its launch than expected: only 29 million by the end of 2024, it says in its blog post, compared to its goal of 100 million. He attributes this in part to frictions like mobile “scary screens,” which he says scare away users. installing Epic Games Store more than 50% of the time.
With a doubled install base and network effects where users invited their friends to join, “I think it would have been easy for us to reach 100 million users,” Sweeney says. Ultimately, he adds, “we won’t have much freedom in app stores, even in Europe, or real choice and competition for users, unless the DMA is strictly enforced.” . »
Epic has been fighting this battle for a long time, with its flashy 2020 lawsuit against Apple marking a key turning point. But Sweeney is prepared for the fight to continue for the better part of this decade. Even with a new U.S. president who seems pretty comfortable with big tech, Sweeney says he’s still optimistic that Donald Trump’s appointees are ready to take on the industry.
“The ridiculous irony is that Epic Games is only able to fully compete with the App Store on an equal footing in Europe,” says Sweeney. “In America, we are forbidden from doing this. And in America, an American citizen cannot get Fortnite (on iOS) — it is blocked from you by Apple. I think it’s ridiculous, and it needs to change, and it will change.
January 23 update: After publishing this article, which was scheduled to be published at an embargo time provided by Epic, said Epic spokesperson Natalie Munoz. The edge that the “launch of third-party games on the Epic Games Store is slightly delayed”. We made small adjustments to the piece to reflect this.
