Apple authorizes sideloaded Epic Games store after blocking it for a third time

[Daniel Sims]

Recap: Epic Games has spent years trying to sidestep Apple's walled garden. After a highly publicized court case that mostly favored the Cupertino giant, new legislation from the European Union provided Epic with another path to its goal. However, the company has repeatedly encountered speedbumps from Apple, which now faces a hefty fine from Europe.

Epic Games recently announced that its sideloaded iOS game store has passed Apple's submission checks, but not without encountering some final obstacles. According to the Fortnite maker, Apple held up the Epic store because its buttons resembled those on the official App Store too closely.

Epic claimed that the Cupertino giant rejected its submission because its buttons for installing apps and accessing in-app purchases looked too similar to Apple's labels. Epic accused Apple of an arbitrary and petty violation of the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which forced the iPhone manufacturer to allow sideloading and alternate software distribution channels on its mobile devices.

Update: Apple has informed us that our previously rejected Epic Games Store notarization submission has now been accepted. https://t.co/tl5LY1aQD6

– Epic Games Newsroom (@EpicNewsroom) July 5, 2024

TechCrunch reports that Apple cooperated with Epic to resolve the issue and had already approved a sideloaded iOS version of Fortnite, just not Epic's launcher for the game. Apple highlighted a section of its terms of service noting that alternate app stores can't look "confusingly similar" to the official one.

Fortnite and the Epic store appear poised for an imminent re-launch on iOS in Europe, but regulators and third-party developers remain dissatisfied with Apple's compliance with the DMA. Epic and Spotify criticized the company's fees and conditions for releasing sideloaded apps.

The conditions are the target of one of two EU investigations into Apple. One investigation is examining the developer membership rules that led to Epic's brief ban in March. The other investigation determined that Apple violated the DMA by restricting how developers could inform customers about payment options, raising the possibility of a $38 billion fine. If regulators find Cupertino's other policies illegal, a second fine could double the previous one.

Meanwhile, Apple's walled garden remains intact outside of Europe. Japan, South Korea, and a few US states have scrutinized the company's app distribution and payment processing restrictions but haven't proposed anything approaching the DMA's scale. Since a US judge's 2021 ruling against Epic, Fortnite has only been available on iOS through browser-based streaming.

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Apple authorizes sideloaded Epic Games store after blocking it for a third time

 

[quadibloc]

As a proud Android phone owner, who would never think of buying an iPhone instead, I don't feel affected by this. I think that Apple's App Store policies make it look greedy, and they impair the utility of their products. However, Android also insists that they get their cut of in-app purchases from programs offered through Google Play, so it's other Apple policies that I have a problem with.
The United States has strict antitrust lawa. But it doesn't define every single platform as a market, so for Apple to impose restrictive and anti-competitive conditions on their App Store is fine, because if people want competion, they can buy an Android phone.
And Apple phones do have better technology, such as security features Android is lacking.

 

[themastergoose]

As someone who's been largely an iPhone user for personal use but also ran Google Pixel 2, 4XL and 8 Pro alongside for work purposes... My opinion is iPhone is just a little better overall to use day to day and it's got better security features. Not a perfect home run for Apple, as there's things the Pixels have I would like iPhone to do and vice versa, but...

...Apples tighter control over app standards makes the iPhone feel just a little more cohesive as an overall package. Both parties are guilty of taking huge cuts from app store sales so Google can't say they're any better here IMO.

At the end of the day tho, nobody at Apple has a gun to your head. If you don't like them, you've free choice and plenty of Android alternatives to pick from.

 

[Mister_K]

I have Note20 Ultra, beat up now quite badly but still working well so probably squeeze out another two years out of it. That said, next phone will certainly be an iPhone. Why? No one competes in image quality, at least for video. Battery life is phenomenal too, or so I've heard.

Same for PC, goodbye workstation, hello M3 MAX. Never thought this day would come.

 

[bandit8623]

Look at every feature apple has... Android had it first.

 

[NESNerd]

I think it's great that there are options out there for every user. If people don't like the Android ecosystem, they can buy an iPhone. If people don't like Apple's ecosystem, they can buy an android. If people don't like either of them find a device, jailbreak, do what you want.

Having spent a lifetime leading large development team as well as managing large teams overseeing multimillion dollar monthly advertising budgets, my *personal* (I'm not in anyway trying to convince anyone to think what I think) belief is that the 15% to 30% fees on most app stores (including game console stores and frankly just about ANY marketplace for physical or electronic goods) is a very good deal. Why do I believe this? The cost to acquire new customers is HUGE when trying to launch an app or any other product. Advertising is wickedly hard, time and money intensive, and has few guarantees. Having a platform that puts you in front of billions of users who are actively looking or apps is just beyond valuable. Yup, you still have to spend time and money to advertise and optimize on that platform further, but you have such a MASSIVE advantage over trying to sell through your own website. Plus, without Apple and Google (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo...) spending billions of dollars developing new technologies and providing all the infrastructure it would be like the old days when I was selling my own apps direct online, trying to get reviews in magazines and books...not fun.

Anyhow, I do believe competition is necessary. I also believe that companies that try to differentiate themselves (such as Apple's walled garden versus Google's much more permissive Android ecosystem) should be allowed to do so.

That said, I'm just one rando person behind a keyboard with my own wild and crazy thoughts. I put my money where my beliefs are and I love that others are free to do the same thing.

 

[bviktor]

As a proud Android phone owner, who would never think of buying an iPhone instead, I don't feel affected by this. I think that Apple's App Store policies make it look greedy, and they impair the utility of their products. However, Android also insists that they get their cut of in-app purchases from programs offered through Google Play, so it's other Apple policies that I have a problem with.
The United States has strict antitrust lawa. But it doesn't define every single platform as a market, so for Apple to impose restrictive and anti-competitive conditions on their App Store is fine, because if people want competion, they can buy an Android phone.
And Apple phones do have better technology, such as security features Android is lacking.

You disqualified yourself right at the beginning for being "proud" for having having phone A instead of phone B.