Wired - Fortnite Maker Epic Games Challenges Apple’s Dominance With New iOS App Store

Europe director Max von Thun highlights Epic Games’ new iOS app store as a significant challenge to Apple’s market dominance, boosted by the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

Epic Games today officially launched a rival app store for iOS in the European Union, marking the first time Apple’s own App Store has had to face a serious rival. The Epic Games Store will initially offer Epic’s games, including Fortnite, for users to download onto their iPhones, with plans to start onboarding third-party developers’ games beginning in December.

The launch, the most dramatic outcome of a series of new EU tech rules passed over the last year, imports the long-standing rivalry between Epic and Apple onto European soil. Epic says its app store will take a maximum 12 percent commission on sales, undercutting Apple’s App Store, where fees can reach up to 30 percent. The Epic Games Store, says Max von Thun, Europe director at the Open Markets Institute, has “a good chance at taking a chunky bite out of Apple’s highly lucrative app store business.”

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