After a four-year hiatus, Epic Games, the owner of the popular online multiplayer shooter Fortnite, said Friday that the game and other titles from the developer will now be available on iPhones in the European Union and globally on all Android devices via your mobile games store.
In July, the company announced it would launch an “Epic Games Store” and charge a 12% store fee for processed payments and 0% for third-party payments.
The new platform was launched in response to Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOGL) app store policies, where the tech giants charged up to 30% commission on payments. Both companies removed the game in 2020 for violating guidelines after Epic introduced a payment feature to avoid commission cuts.
Epic said the launch of the game store in the EU was made possible by the EU Digital Markets Act, but noted that Apple still restricts people outside of Europe from accessing Fortnite and its game store.
“We're really grateful to the European Commission for not only passing the DMA and allowing competition in stores, but also for stepping in and keeping Apple and Google in check to ensure they can't simply obstruct competition,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said.
Epic also noted that downloading the Play Store “requires a series of steps, which was an intentional design choice by Apple and Google to make it difficult to download from competing app stores and apps.”
The game developer left the Samsung Galaxy Store last month in protest at what it called “Samsung's anti-competitive decision” to block sideloading by default on Samsung devices.
