Apple and Epic Games have been at legal war for ages, but a new EU law is weakening Apple’s monopoly on iOS. Result: The Epic Games Store is now available as an external marketplace alongside the App Store on iOS – and also on Android.
It had already been indicated that, under the new EU legislation, large marketplaces such as the Epic Games Store could open up new platforms. Now it’s official: Epic Games has announced its in-house store for all kinds of games for the iOS and Android mobile platforms. The launch of the Epic Games Store is scheduled to take place there in 2024, although there is currently no specific date.
The announcement was made by Steve Allison, general manager at Epic Games, during the tech giant’s GDC keynote. Beyond the actual announcement and a suitable concept image of what the Epic Games Store should look like on mobile devices, there were initially no further details.
In this context, Allison emphasized that the company had “fought tirelessly” to be able to bring its own marketplace onto these platforms – which could be interpreted as criticism of Apple and Google. In order to circumvent the restrictions and regulations of these companies, they will develop their own mobile-based version of the Epic Games Store and release it before a year. There will also be some self-publishing tools that focus specifically on mobile games.
