Epic Games plans to add about 20 third-party games to its mobile app store globally on Android and in the European Union on iOS. The company’s CEO said he wants to create a cross-platform store that will allow users to own their digital goods anywhere.
Epic Games plans to add about 20 third-party games to its mobile app store globally on Android and in the European Union on iOS. The company’s CEO said he wants to create a cross-platform store that will allow users to own their digital goods anywhere.
According to The Verge, Epic is also set to launch a free game program on mobile, starting with Bloons TD 6 and Dungeon of the Endless: Apogee. The company is also promising to pay some iOS fees for developers who participate in the program. Epic Games will offer new free games to the store every month, and will eventually switch to a weekly schedule, similar to its PC store.
«Our goal is not to just launch a bunch of different stores in different places, but to create a single cross-platform store where, in the era of multiplatform gaming, if you buy a game or digital goods in one place, you can own them everywhere,» Epic CEO Tim Sweeney told reporters.
The wait is over! Nearly 20 new games, fresh features and our Free Game program are now live in the Epic Games Store on mobile 🤩
— Epic Games Store (@EpicGames) January 24, 2025
Grab Dungeon of the Endless: Apogee for FREE through February 20. More info: https://t.co/UlNwQ8CEEI pic.twitter.com/2hpNNefHex
For developers participating in the Free to Play iOS Games program, Epic will help cover the costs of using third-party marketplaces. For one year, it will pay these developers a Core Technology Fee (CTF): 50 euro cents charged for each install of an iOS app that uses third-party stores after its downloads exceed 1 million in a year.
Epic complains that «even if a developer chooses to list just one game on the Epic Games Store, they must pay a fee every time any of their games are downloaded to an iPhone or iPad, whether from Apple’s App Store or an alternative store.» According to Sweeney, the fee «destroys any hope that competing stores will be able to gain a foothold in the market.» The company hopes the EU will take action over what it sees as a violation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which regulates digital competition.
The Epic Games Store for iOS only operates in the EU because Apple was forced to open its ecosystem there under a DMA agreement; the company continues to argue that its restrictions in other countries are aimed at protecting the security of its system. Epic claims that many mobile game developers don’t use its store because Apple and Google deter them with restrictions and fees.
Since launching its mobile store, Epic has seen far fewer installs than it expected: just 29 million by the end of 2024, the company said in a blog post, compared to its goal of 100 million. That’s partly due to factors like mobile «fear screens,» which the company says deter users from installing the Epic Games Store more than 50% of the time.
«The ridiculous irony is that Epic Games can only fully compete with the App Store on equal terms in Europe. In America, we are fenced off from that. And in America, a US citizen can’t get Fortnite [on iOS] — it’s blocked for you, Apple. I think it’s ridiculous, and it has to change, and it will change,» the head of Epic Games said.
