In its latest shot across the bow at Apple, Epic Games announced on Thursday that Fortnite is not only coming to the Epic Games Store on iOS and Android in the EU soon, but it will also be available on third-party app stores. In fact, Epic says many of its mobile games will be available on the alternative app marketplaces now rolling out in the EU.
In a blog post, Epic revealed that its mobile games will launch on AltStore PAL on iOS in the EU. The publisher also plans to support at least two other third-party app stores, but didn’t name any other marketplaces in its announcement on Thursday.
“Here’s why we’re doing this,” said Epic. “We’ve long been advocating for the rights of stores to exist and compete fairly on iOS and Android, and progress is spreading across the globe, in the form of Europe’s DMA, similar laws in the UK and Japan, regulatory investigations around the world, and victory in the Epic v Google litigation in the US.”
“We’ll take advantage of this opportunity to bring all developers a great deal on our store. And as game developers ourselves, we want to do everything we can to support other stores that strive to bring all developers their own great deals.”
Epic Games also announced that Fortnite and its other games are leaving the Samsung Galaxy Store. Epic sees this as an effective way to protest Samsung’s decision to block sideloading by default on its Android devices with the Auto Blocker feature.