Epic Games Plans for Alternative App Marketplace in EU as Apple Reinstates Developer Account
Epic Games today announced plans to bring the Epic Games Store to iOS in the European Union, with Apple reinstating the company's developer account.
In its 2023 Year in Review, Epic said that it received its Apple Developer Account and would soon start developing an alternative app marketplace. The Epic Games Store will launch on iOS in the EU at some point in 2024, and it will provide a way for Epic Games to bring a Fortnite app to iOS once again.
Fortnite was removed from the iOS App Store at the start of the Epic Games v. Apple feud in 2020, and it has been unavailable since then. Epic Games did bring it to iPhones and iPads through Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce NOW, but the game has only been accessible through these browser-based services.
Shortly after Apple's alternative app marketplace plan was announced, Epic Games promised that Fortnite would "return to iOS" in Europe, and at the same time, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney lambasted Apple's plan to comply with the DMA. He called it a "devious new instance of Malicious Compliance" and said that the company "strongly reject[s] Apple's twisting this process to undermine competition and continue imposing Apple taxes on transactions they're not involved in."
While working to implement the Epic Games Store on iOS, Epic also plans to continue to "argue to the courts and regulators that Apple is breaking the law."
Popular Stories
Apple today announced a new post-quantum cryptographic protocol for iMessage called PQ3. Apple says this "groundbreaking" and "state-of-the-art" protocol provides "extensive defenses against even highly sophisticated quantum attacks." Apple believes the PQ3 protocol's protections "surpass those in all other widely deployed messaging apps," according to its blog post:Today we are announcing...
Apple last month confirmed that iOS 17.4 will be released in March, and the update includes several new features and changes for the iPhone. Key new features in iOS 17.4 include major App Store changes in the EU and Apple Podcasts transcripts. The update also adds new emoji and includes preparations for the launch of next-generation CarPlay later this year. More details about the new...
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models concurrently, which is why we sometimes get rumored feature leaks so far ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and already we have some idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you plan to skip...
Apple is speeding up development of a smart ring that can be worn on the finger to track users' health biometrics, claims a new report coming out of Korea. Teaser image of Samsung Galaxy Ring shown at Galaxy Unpacked in January Apple has toyed with the idea of a ring wearable for several years, as indicated by several patents, but with Samsung preparing to bring its own product to market, the ...
The fourth beta of iOS 17.4 that Apple released today adds a new CarPlay feature, according to the notes that Apple provided to developers. In supported CarPlay vehicles, there's now an Apple Maps option to show information about upcoming maneuvers in the instrument cluster. CarPlay users will be able to swap the display type between the main and instrument cluster by tapping on the map...
Apple is planning to update the iPad Air and iPad Pro lineups as soon as March, and the new iPad Pro models will be significantly thinner according to dimensions shared by 9to5Mac. Citing sources with knowledge of Apple's plans, the site claims that the larger version will be more than 1mm thinner. The current 12.9-inch iPad Pro measures in at 6.4mm thick, but the new model is said to be 5mm ...
Apple is planning to launch at least nine new devices with OLED displays across the iPad and MacBook product lines, according to an updated forecast from research firm Omdia that sets out the company's plans in detail. As widely rumored, Apple's push to transition to OLED will apparently be jump-started by the release of new 11- and 13-inch iPad Pro models this year. The displays will...
Apple today began offering refurbished versions of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M3 Pro and M3 Max chip options, offering the machines at a discount for the first time since their October 2023 release. The release of M3 Pro and M3 Max models on Apple's refurbished store comes almost two weeks after the entry-level 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro first appeared on the store....
Top Rated Comments
I personally am thankful for the Epic efforts vs Apple
Apple has become too large and too powerful and they've shown a desire and track record of abusing that position.
I appreciate any form of push back against that.
And congratulations on creating a more competitive environment for apps for your devices. As history has pretty much always shown, where there is competition, there are lower prices... along with a natural pressure to out-value competitors to woo buyers. Where there is no competition, there is no incentive to lower prices- in fact, it's just the opposite to maximize revenue & profit for the sole shopkeeper.
You will now have access to apps that some of us OUTSIDE of the EU would also love to enjoy on devices we own, not because those apps won't work on our iDevices too and not because they are loaded with bank-account-draining viruses created by crime syndicates to completely destroy lives... but because you have a new law that says you can have access to them and we have a corporation that says we can't. You'll have new stores where the creators of those apps can make a bit more for their work while potentially selling their apps to you for less, while we have a single store where the first in line at the profit trough is the ONE store owner, NOT the app developer. But obviously, our way is the superior way. We pay more, app developer makes less but maximizing for the ONE store owner is all that really matters.
You now have the ability to do with your iDevices what we've all been able to do with our Macs for all of the years we've owned Macs: buy Apps from more than a single source, including in deeply discounted app bundles. I would place bets that many of the people who will rail against this enhanced consumer freedom- again- probably has at least one app on their own Mac that they did NOT get from the Apple Mac App Store... if not many. But "we'll" rail anyway because the Corp doesn't want to lose its exclusive hold as the SOLE store and the very lucrative cash that comes from taking a great big bite out of every transaction within that single store... so "we" will always side with the Corp even over our own best interests as consumers. Fantastically profitable Corp knows better than the people who own the products... and deserves more than the developers who create & maintain the apps.
And cue up another 200 posts about the flood of viruses, trojans, locusts, frogs, plague, vermin and devastation about to rain upon the EU... because as we Mac owners know, that's exactly what it's been for us in all of these years of having the very same app choice flexibility in buying apps for our Macs. We've barely survived the relentless misery of that freedom and now you'll be dealing with the same on your iDevices.
As an American, I envy your greater freedoms of consumer choice. Enjoy them!
HAHAHAHAHA
To be honest I will not be using any App Store other than Apple's and I definitely will not be side loading any apps. I prefer know that Apple's security works.
In August 2020, Fortnite was possibly at it's biggest point with the launch of a new season featuring some of the biggest Marvel characters (also at a time when Marvel - the MCU - was at its biggest). This is the moment that Epic played their hand. I really think they thought the power of both Fortnite and Marvel would compel Apple to fold.
It did not.
There were minor victories for Epic along the way that some would say benefit developers, but even more so smaller developers.
I cannot imagine how much money Epic left on the table by pulling out of the App Store at that moment. Crazy.