Epic Games to bring Fortnite to AltStore, remove the battle royale from Samsung Galaxy Store and more in latest move
Sweeney the friend of developers?
- Epic Games has unveiled new details on their mobile storefront coming to the EU on iOS
- They've also announced that they will be removing their games from the Samsung Galaxy Store
- You can expect the recent changes that allow third-party app stores in the EU to affect this
It seems like only a short while ago we were last writing about the Epic Games Store coming to mobile, and the furore surrounding the Fortnite developer once more. But now things have once more taken quite a turn; for one, Epic Games is bringing their mobile catalogue to the AltStore on iOS in the EU, while also removing them from the Samsung Galaxy Store!
The stated reason for removing their games is to protest Samsung's policy against side-loading on their devices. Epic also revealed the new terms on their store (set to launch in the EU on iOS 'soon'), with a 12% fee for payments they process and no fees for third-party payments, which you may remember are the reason they got into hot water with Apple in the first place.
Epic also plan to announce support for at least two more third-party app stores in the near future, most likely in the EU as well. The move to end distribution partnerships with other app stores is a significant one, but is it a move that'll pay off?
While Epic's news post on the topic is suitably evangelist, we're always a little bit sceptical. After all there's a big difference between more humble devs and the multi-billion dollar Unreal Engine makers. Still, if it works as they intend this could be a major game-changer for mobile (pun intended.)
Regardless, ending distribution partnerships with 'official' storefronts like the Samsung Galaxy Store is a major move. Although given they've already been removed from the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, both far more widely used, this may be a drop in the bucket for Epic.
Still, if you're not a big Fortnite fan or fussed about this, you could always dig into our latest entry in our regular feature of the top five new mobile games to try this week for some great games!
