Fortnite Developer Epic Games is back on iOS, thanks to the launch of Epic Games Store for mobile platforms. Epic’s games and apps marketplace is now available for download on iPhones in the European Union and Android devices worldwide, Epic announced on Friday.
The mobile version of the Epic Games Store, launched in 2018 for Mac and Windows PC, launches with three games developed by Epic: Fortnite (including Fortnite Battle Royale, Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival), Rocket League digAnd Autumn Boys. Epic says it works with third-party developers to bring their games and apps to the Epic Games Store for mobile, and that it also releases its games through a third-party store called AltStore.
Apple removed Fortnite from its App Store in 2020. Apple made this move – and Android maker Google did the same on the Google Play Store – in response to Epic allowing players to purchase the in-game currency, V-Bucks, directly from its app store. Fortnitethereby bypassing Apple and Google’s own payment processors, which take 30% of in-app purchases. Epic Games filed antitrust lawsuits against Apple and Google shortly thereafter. Fortnite has been removed from each company’s digital store.
Epic Games brings its own App Store and popular games back to iOS thanks to the European Union Digital Markets Act. This law requires six “gatekeepers” – Google parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok maker ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft – to adhere to certain guidelines. Those guidelines include allowing third-party vendors like Epic to interact with the gatekeepers’ built-in software and services and allowing customers to interact with companies outside of the gatekeepers’ platforms.
The Epic Games Store and Epic games will not be available on iOS outside the EU for the foreseeable future. In a press release, Epic stated that “Apple will continue to restrict all other iOS users outside of Europe from accessing Fortnite and Epic Games Store for iOS.”
Installing the Epic Games Store on iOS and Android platforms isn’t easy, though, even if you’re in the EU. Epic says that installing its external app store is a “lengthy” 15-step process, as Apple and Google “intentionally introduce inferior installation experiences laden with multiple steps, confusing device settings, and scare screens.” But Epic is offering some incentives to get players on mobile devices to download the Epic Games Store and its games, with a handful of exclusive in-game cosmetics available Fortnite Fans who play the iOS or Android versions.
In a call with journalists this week, Steve Allison, General Manager of the Epic Games Store, said: “The reason we are only starting with our first-party games on Friday is because Fortnite the return to iOS is a very strong story for players. We expect motivated players to work through this period. [install experience]. Many will drop out, but many will make it.”
Allison said the company’s strategy in launching a mobile store is similar to that of the Epic Games Store on PC, which encourages customers to install the marketplace with weekly free games.
Image: Epic Games
“Our goal is to have as many [devices]because once you have gone through these steps, once you have the Epic Games Store on your device, or [alternative app stores] Aptoide or AltStore, getting an app is just like iOS or Android. It’s one or two clicks,” Allison said. “So we’re really using this time between now and the end of the year to get as many installs as possible so that we can get as many users in a good position as possible so that they don’t have to experience that friction and frustrate third-party developers that come to us.”
Allison added: “We are pretty excited about the tactics [and] Strategies we’ve implemented on PC have worked for us. We believe we’ll see a similar result on mobile.”
Currently, Epic’s efforts to create an alternative to Apple and Google’s app stores are limited to EU countries. There are no plans to Fortnite and the mobile Epic Games Store are once again available to US consumers, but Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says there is hope for other markets. Recent laws, including the UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act and a similar law in Japancould help bring more third-party stores to devices powered by Apple or Google’s operating systems.
“It was a massive failure of the U.S. regulatory and policy system that there was no clear, clean response to stop monopolization by a U.S. company in the United States and around the world,” Sweeney said in a call with reporters. “It was disheartening to see. But hopefully someone will take up the task in the coming years. In the meantime, we expect to be banned from the iOS App Store, except in these territories, for the foreseeable future, perhaps even years, while we continue to fight globally.”
