Epic Games is preparing to return to iOS in Europe as a result of EU regulation, the Digital Marketing Act (DMA), the company has now confirmed. The Fortnite developer says it will offer both the game and Epic Games Stores on mobile in Europe shared in a blog post which looked at the year in review and what’s to come in 2024. While the DMA would allow Epic Games to operate a mobile game store, the company’s developer account was banned from both the App Store and Google Play after violating deliberately the companies’ rules for in-app purchases in the face of its twin antitrust lawsuits with the tech giants.
Although Epic Games lost its case with Apple as the courts ruled that the Cupertino-based iPhone maker was not a monopolist, it was not entirely clear whether Apple would allow the developer to return to the iOS platform given the infringement. Instead, while Epic waited for its lawsuits to be settled, Fortnite returned to iOS via a third party – Nvidia’s game streaming service, GeForce Now.
Today, the company shared that it has received Apple’s developer account and will “start developing the Epic Games Store on iOS soon, thanks to the new Digital Markets Act.”
It’s interesting here that Epic Games is expressing gratitude for the regulation and the possibilities it has, given that CEO Tim Sweeney has been heavily critical of Apple’s response, calling it “malicious compliance,” “full of spam charges,” and once again “anti-competitive”. .” In a posting on XSweeney wrote that Apple was forcing developers to choose between App Store exclusivity or accepting a “new, also illegal, anti-competitive scheme,” he said.
Despite casting Apple’s compliance with the regulation as anti-competitive, the company intends to use the new rules to compete again in mobile, it seems.
Epic says Epic Games Sweden AB will operate the new mobile Epic Games Store and Fortnite in Europe, with the Store team leading development. Epic Games Sweden has a total of three studios and more than 60 employees, the company also noted.
The company had earlier promising that Fortnite would return to iOS in Europe this year, but not the details of that venture. Nor had he confirmed whether he had regained access to his Apple developer account at that time.
“Stay tuned for details as we figure out the regulatory timeline,” the company posted on X last month. “We will continue to argue in court and with regulators that Apple is breaking the law.”
