Fortnite publisher Epic Games debuts mobile storefront after years in court
EPIC Games is launching a new mobile storefront on Friday (Aug 16) after four years of legal wrangling with Apple and Alphabet’s Google over their app store practices.
Chief executive officer Tim Sweeney expects Epic Games’ mobile versions of the popular titles Fortnite, Rocket League and Fall Guys to draw in gamers on Android devices worldwide and iOS products in the European Union.
By the end of the year, the company wants to attract 100 million new installs on mobile devices, which are responsible for half of the US$188 billion games market.
In a press conference, Sweeney cited major challenges to that goal, including an installation process on iOS devices that he said was designed to discourage users.
“Once you go through the 15 horrible steps to get the store on your device, it works really nicely,” he said of the process confronting users.
Epic Games has spent “hundreds of millions of dollars” battling Apple and Google over their app store practices, Sweeney said. The tech giants charge companies up to a 30 per cent fee on sales and make it tough for consumers to access and download apps from alternative stores.
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Sweeney said it was “worth paying for freedom”, adding the “entire games industry is in a suppressed state compared to what it would be if there was free and open competition among stores”.
Epic Games may have lost up to US$1 billion in revenue after Fortnite was removed from Apple’s App Store , Sweeney said – a step the iPhone maker took when Epic attempted to circumvent the 30 per cent fee with its own storefront in 2020.
Epic won an unfair competition case against Google, but mostly lost its challenge to Apple. The game company will charge a 12 per cent fee on mobile transactions it processes, as it does with its current store for PCs and Macs.
Recent regulatory moves in the EU are opening up the app store market. But in conversations with other game companies, Epic Games’ store head, Steve Allison, said companies offering their apps outside the Apple universe are worried about so-called friction – cumbersome steps to complete a transaction – citing recent moves by that company.
“We are confident that over time we will get these things eradicated,” Allison said. “But we don’t know if it’s going to be two months or two years, or longer.”
Mobile had been the fastest-growing segment in gaming, but worldwide downloads in the second quarter were down 6 per cent from a year earlier to the lowest level since before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an August report from Sensor Tower.
Despite the headwinds, game developers are interested in sidestepping Apple and Google’s fees with alternative stores. Microsoft Corp is making its own web-based mobile store that will offer discounts on items purchased in games like Candy Crush. Epic Games is also working with third-party mobile app stores like AltStore to launch games on mobile.
Epic Games will draw mobile players with a changing roster of free games, which it already offers in the Epic Games Store. Sweeney said the company does not plan to adopt a subscription model for its games.
“We don’t need Game Pass,” he said, referring to Microsoft’s offering. “We don’t need people to pay us. We’re happy to get the users in and have them become long-term customers.”
Offering free games is a cheaper way to acquire users than through ads on social media, and results in an upsurge in developers’ game sales, Sweeney said.
In December, the Epic Games Store will welcome third-party game developers. In early 2025, the company hopes to let iOS and Android users access Epic’s self-publishing tools. BLOOMBERG
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