Epic Games’ Fortnite returns to Android devices and EU iPhones after years of legal battle over the company’s third-party app store

Epic Games’ Fortnite has returned to mobile for the first time in four years after the company launched its third-party app store on Apple’s iOS devices and Google’s Android devices.

Epic portrayed the move as a significant victory for regulators who had been pressuring Apple and Google to open up their smartphone ecosystems to more competition.

However, the company also pointed out that Apple and Google had introduced “intentionally inferior installation experiences” for third-party app stores, requiring users to go through multiple steps and bypass “scare screens.”

“We continue to fight in court and work with regulators around the world to eliminate the anti-competitive conditions that Apple and Google impose on developers and consumers,” the company said.

Third-party app store

Apple and Google banned Epic from their platforms in 2020 after the company stopped paying commissions in protest against developer terms.

Since then, the companies have been involved in legal disputes.

At the beginning of the year, Apple blocked Epic’s EU developer account and then restored it. The account was to be used for the launch of the third-party app store for iOS.

The Epic Games Store is only available to iOS users in the EU, where the Digital Markets Act (DMA) forces smartphone platforms to allow third-party app stores.

“The DMA asked us to enable new opportunities for developers in the EU, and we have worked to make these as easy as possible for users while trying to protect their privacy and security,” Apple said in a statement.

The store is available worldwide on Android.

Epic plans to charge developers a 12 percent commission for selling games in its store, compared to around 30 percent at Apple.

However, Apple also charges fees on all apps distributed through third-party app stores.

“Tangible progress”

“The fight is far from over, but this is tangible progress for developers and consumers who can begin to benefit from competition and choice,” said Epic CEO Tim Sweeney.

Last week, Spotify announced it would offer its summer discount on subscriptions on its music streaming app in the EU, after the European Commission fined Apple nearly $2 billion (£1.6 billion) for, among other things, blocking music apps from displaying advertisements in their apps.

Apple announced last week that it would allow developers in the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan and the UK to use the company’s contactless NFC technology to offer customers in-store payments, hotel keys and loyalty cards.

EU antitrust authorities said in July that they had accepted Apple’s commitments to give competitors access to the technology, ending a four-year investigation.

Apple said developers would have to accept new terms and fees to use the service, but did not provide details.