Epic is continuing its battle for freer access to Apple and Android play stores with a promise to pay the Apple store fees for developers who make their games available on the newly expanded Epic Games Store.

The Epic Games Store on Mobile has just got, in its own words, "a lot more epic", with the addition of nearly 20 third-party games. At the same time Epic has launched its Free Games program on Android worldwide and iOS in the European Union. The first set of games includes 19 new games on Android globally and 16 new games on iOS in the European Union. Epic plans to offer extra new games free each month, with a plan to move to weekly releases later in the year. 

Developers who sell games on Epic's store will receive an 88% percent share of the payment amount Epic processes. Even so, many devs are unwilling to take the risk of moving to the Epic Games Store due to the way in which Apple and Google discourage them with restrictions and fees. 

To attract more Apple developers to participate in its Free Games store, Epic has pledged to pay Core Technology Fee (CTF): a 0.50 Euro fee levied on every install of an iOS app that uses third-party stores after it exceeds 1 million annual downloads on behalf of developers for one year, 

Epic has spent billions of dollars on the battle already since its star game Fortnite was blocked from the Apple Store back in 2020. While this new move will also cost a lot of money, Epic considers the CTC to be illegal and says the fee would make releasing games on the Epic Games Store for iOS financially unviable for third party developers.

Apple, meanwhile, says the CTF:

"reflects the value Apple provides developers through ongoing investments in tools, technologies, and services."

Writing on X, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said:

"Reminder, Apple and Google make more profit from iOS and Android games than the creators who make the games. It's a 30% tax on the computing and it needs to stop RIGHT NOW."

Epic's drive to get the big-name games onto the Epic store is also hampered by Apple's and Google's scare screens which it claims are putting off up to 50% of potential users

In a press conference, Epic boss Tim Sweeney said that while paying the CTC developers isn't feasible in the long term, the company can bear the brunt of the cost while the European Commission investigates Apple's alleged "non-compliance" with the law.

"I think we might run into serious financial problems after a couple more decades of this. But we're determined to fight this out. I expect large parts of this struggle will go on throughout the rest of this decade and we're fully committed to going through it and investing to break through."

More Information

Epic Games Store adds third-party titles, free games, and more on mobile

Related Articles

Epic Gives Devs 100% Revenue

Apple Wins Appeal Against Epic

Epic v Apple - Both Sides Lose But It's A Win For Developers

Epic Games V Apple & Google - Smash The App Stores

Google To Pay $90 Million To Devs - But It's Not Enough

Google Matches Apple's App Store Cut

To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, sign up for our weekly newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin.

Comments

Make a Comment or View Existing Comments Using Disqus

or email your comment to: comments@i-programmer.info