Epic Games Inc., developer of the popular Fortnite shooting game, is adding third party games to its new mobile market, intensifying a long and costly dispute with Apple Inc.
Titles represent the first batch of mobile games from external developers to appear in Epic Games StoreSaid the company on Thursday, and will include games played on Google Android devices worldwide and Apple IOS devices in Europe. Some will be free to play.
Epic Games Mobile Store debuted in August with its own products, titles like Fortnite and Rocket. The company has invested more than $ 1 billion (about RS. 8.626 million) in its digital store for video games and mobile applications, founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said at a meeting with reporters.
“We spend more money than we made every year because we chose to invest in growth,” he said.
Sweeney has been fighting in the courts and market since 2020 to shake the domain over mobile applications maintained by Litter and from Alphabet Inc. Google. Although the company has achieved some concessions from technology leaders, fans still struggle to download the Epic Games Store of devices that use their software.
“Apple and Google They are making it very difficult, ”said Sweeney. “We had a goal of 100 million facilities with original games. We knew this would be very difficult. We ended up with 30 million. ”
Sweeney blames the impediments created by companies, including pop-ups and other impediments.
In 2023, a Federal Court of Appeals in California ruled mainly in favor of Apple on Epic’s allegations that the iPhone manufacturer’s application store was a monopoly. However, Apple has been asked to open its App Store for external payment options. Epic has gained an antitrust case against Google.
Apple and Google raised about $ 23 billion (about rs. 1.98,384 crore) in 2023 of the 30% cut that receive sales from the application store, according to a report by Matthew Ball, CEO of the company EPYLLION INVESTMENT CONSULTING.
“Stores rates deprive developers of the much needed margin for reinvestment,” said Ball. “Their controls also prevented the development of new experiences and business models that could restore growth and/or create new genres and companies.”
Sweeney, whose computer store and mobile devices charges a 12%commission, calls Apple and Google application stores “the largest market power abuse in modern history.”
So far, Epic said, none of the 100 most box office mobile game developers were willing to offer titles at Epic Games Store because of Apple’s central technology rate and other restrictions imposed by companies.
According to Apple’s central technology rate, the most popular mobile games may be subject to a download rate when a developer chooses to distribute them to an alternative application store. To relieve the burden, Epic will cover the costs of all developer titles participating in the Epic Games Store free game program on iOS or iPados devices.
“The word to spend more money than you make when you have a big deal is’ investment,” said Sweeney.
© Thomsonreuters 2025
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