“Fortnite” maker Epic Games said Thursday it will add 19 third-party games to its own marketplace app on Google’s Android globally and 16 games on Apple’s iOS in the European Union.
The gaming company had launched its mobile game store in 2024, allowing it to avoid fees charged by conventional app marketplaces such as Google’s Play and Apple’s App Store during in-app purchases.
Epic Games had also argued that users didn’t have many choices other than the two most popular app stores to download gaming apps, which removed competition.
It will launch a program to offer free games on its mobile store, starting with titles such as “Bloons TD 6” and “Dungeon of the Endless: Apogee.”
The company said it would temporarily cover the base technology fee, the 0.50 euros ($0.5210) charged by Apple on each app after it crosses 1 million installs, for developers who participate to Epic’s free games program in Europe.
“We are opening the Epic Games Store to third-party mobile games, starting with a small catalog and expanding in due course to a very large catalog,” CEO Tim Sweeney told reporters.
“Our goal is not to launch several different stores, but to create a single, multi-platform store.
-Epic Games, headquartered in North Carolina, reached 29 million users for its mobile store by the end of 2024, which is below its goal of 100 million users.
The company also offers computer graphics software, called “Unreal Engine”, which is widely used by app developers to design and develop games.
Last year, Apple approved Epic Games’ marketplace app in Europe. Epic has clashed with Google and Apple over their rules that allow commissions of up to 30% on payments made in app stores.
After being banned for almost four years, Epic Games’ game “Fortnite” has returned to iPhones in the European Union and Android devices worldwide.
(1 $ = 0,9598 euros)
