Re: Epic Games Store Mobile
Malena Bower
Epic Games confirmed on Wednesday (March 20) that it will bring its Epic Games Store to both iOS and Android sometime this year. The company said in its State of Unreal presentation that the store will feature Fortnite, along with a host of third-party games. Epic stopped short of saying which games will be made available.
For years, Epic has been playing outside of the mobile space, due to its ongoing feud with Apple over royalties and developer relationships. The company sued Apple in Europe, arguing that its iron-like grip on its App Store was anti-competitive.
Last month, Epic got one step closer to iOS when the European Union enacted the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law that effectively requires Apple (and any other platform owner, like Google) to allow third-party marketplaces to operate on their operating systems. Soon after the announcement, Epic said that it was launching its own store for iOS.
However, shortly after the DMA went into effect, Apple said that it had banned Epic from its developer community for a range of alleged misgivings. Epic, of course, balked at the move but had little recourse. Ultimately, the companies held private discussions that led to Apple reinstating Epic on the grounds that it would adhere to its policies.
However, now that Epic has lost its developer license, its store, too, is out. Again, Epic could work with other app stores to make its games more readily available, but whether Apple could somehow block other titles available on other platforms is also unknown.
Don Reisinger is CEO and founder of D2 Tech Agency. A communications strategist, consultant, and copywriter, Don has also written for many leading technology and business publications including CNET, Fortune Magazine, The New York Times, Forbes, Computerworld, Digital Trends, TechCrunch and Slashgear. He has also written for Tom's Guide for many years, contributing hundreds of articles on everything from phones to games to streaming and smart home.
Apple and Google dominate the app stores where game developers release titles, charging an approximate 30% fee on sales. In late 2023, Microsoft gaming head Phil Spencer shared that the company is in talks with partners to launch its own Xbox app store.
Epic announced users would get a 20% discount buying Fortnite currency on its own website. In response, Apple and Google deleted Fortnite from their app stores. Epic filed lawsuits against both tech giants, alleging illegal monopolistic control over their mobile phone ecosystems.
Finally, we shared more about our plans to bring the Epic Games Store (EGS) to mobile later this year. EGS will become the first ever game-focused, multi-platform store, and will work across Android, iOS, PC, and macOS. Mobile developers will benefit from the same fair terms on EGS for PC: 88/12 revenue share and the same programs you can leverage to keep 100% of revenue using your own payments for in-app purchases, Epic First Run, and Now On Epic. More on this soon!
As a result of its legal battle with Epic Games in the United States, Apple was forced to relax its anti-steering rules that previously prohibited developers from linking to alternative payment systems in their apps.
As part of its plan, however, Apple said it would still charge a commission on purchases made through alternative payment platforms. This commission is 12% for developers who are members of the App Store Small Business Program and 27% for other apps.
Meanwhile, across the pond, Epic has revealed a few additional details about its forthcoming Epic Games app store in the European Union. As part of the Game Developers Conference today, the company revealed that it hopes to launch its Epic Games Store for iPhone and Android in the EU by the end of the year.
Epic says the terms for developers will be the same via the Epic Games Store on mobile as they are on the Epic Games Store on PC. As such, the company will take a 12% commission on all sales through the Epic Games Store. The revenue share is 100% for the developer during the first six months on the Epic Games Store.
Google violated California and federal antitrust laws through deals that stifled competition for its Play mobile app store, a jury in San Francisco unanimously found today. The verdict delivers the first significant US courtroom loss for big tech in the years-long campaign by rivals, regulators, and prosecutors to tame the power of internet gatekeepers.
Epic Games has announced that the Epic Games Store is coming to iOS and Android devices later this year. The Epic Games Store's mobile expansion will allow the storefront to function across all major, non-console platforms.
The Epic Games Store was launched in 2018 as a competitor to Steam, with its reduced revenue cut being one of the main selling points for developers. Epic also attempted to attract studios by cutting its 5% Unreal Engine royalty for any revenue generated from the Epic Games Store by games using the state-of-the-art engine. As for attracting regular users, the Epic Games Store offers free games every week, with games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and The Bridge currently being free to claim. It seems that Epic has plenty more in mind for the future of its growing storefront.
At Epic's State of Unreal presentation, EGS General Manager Steve Allison announced the storefront's mobile release set for later this year. He further detailed that the approaching launch will make the EGS the first game-focused, multiplatform store to be released across Android, iOS, PC, and Mac. As most probably assumed, using the store across the different platforms will be anchored by a user's Epic account. Allison also revealed that multiple third-party partners have expressed interest in joining the launch of the EGS' mobile release, but did not specify what companies these are. Additionally, the 2024 launch will be accompanied by new self-publishing tools that make it easier for mobile developers to release their apps. Epic plans to reveal more about the future of its Epic Games Store very soon.
The announcement comes after Epic went through legal battles with Apple and Google over their practices with the App Store and Google Play Store. Epic's fight with Apple resulted in the iPhone creator being cleared of claims that it was a monopoly engaging in antitrust behavior, but was found to be enforcing anticompetitive rules that resulted in some slight changes.
Epic's legal spat with Google over mobile store practices went much better for the Fortnite creator. A jury decided that Google had violated anti-trust laws in its efforts to position the Play Store as Android's primary storefront. Epic's future mobile store will likely help the company avoid the regulations imposed by the two tech giants in their respective storefronts.
In recent months, Epic announced more major mobile news. Fortnite was set to return to European Union mobile devices later this year. However, recent developments between Apple and Epic may delay this release.
Before anyone gets lost in a haze of free market, anti-monopoly philosophizing, let's remember that Epic's motivation is money. They wanted to keep more of what they earned from their mobile games, starting with the popular Fortnite.
Apple dropped its commission rate in half after the subscriber's first year. Apple also set up an App Store Small Business Program, garnering a lower commission rate for developers who make less than $1 million a year in sales.
But Epic tried to subvert both Apple and Google' in-app purchase systems, and was kicked out of paradise for its efforts. Banned from both stores, Epic then sued each company for anticompetitive behavior.
The judge in the Apple case ruled that Epic failed to prove its central thesis, that Apple was operating as an illegal monopoly. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ultimately rejected 9 of the 10 claims Epic made, although she did find that Apple violated the state of California's unfair competition law through its "anti-steering" efforts.
The injunction she put in place requires Apple to let app developers provide links to alternate payment methods, though that matter is not yet settled. Apple's fighting it tooth and nail all the way to the Supreme Court. The 9th Circuit Court delayed implementing Rogers' injunction, and the Supreme Court has upheld that decision while Apple gets ready to appeal the case to them.
She ruled that Epic hadn't made its case that that constituted a monopoly, specifically. Instead, she defined the market as "digital mobile gaming transactions," a more broad definition that included both Apple, Google and others.
Epic's attempt to bypass the Play Store so rattled Google that they were afraid that if Epic were successful, other big names in the game world would follow suit. Google worried that it could lose up to $6 billion in Play Store revenue if Amazon, Samsung, and others decided to roll their own payment systems.
Unlike the Apple case, the jury was left to define the scope of Google's market in its ruling, and it went with Epic's definition as the source of Android app distribution and associated billing services. That narrower definition compared to Judge Rogers cast Google's actions into a harsher light.
It didn't help that Google's note-taking was both excellent and awful. During the process of discovery, Epic found plenty of examples where Google executives said the quiet things out loud that painted a damning anti-competitive picture.
Donato told the jury on their way to their ultimately very short deliberation that the absence of that evidence could be construed negatively against Google. And at least one juror told reporters after the ruling that Google's ethically dubious lack of data retention played into their decision.
Google doesn't have one set of rules, the trial proved. It championed being open, and at the same time it carved out special deals in secret and took steps to be sure that other parties didn't hear about the deals.
Google's more superficially open ecosystem worked against it, in the end. Apple's absolutely rigid behavior to not allow any app stores but its own gave the company a legal consistency around how it charges developers. Google may pay lip service to openness, but it aggressively and egregiously abused its power to keep the Play Store's dominance.
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