For others, the arrival of Epic Games Store on iOS is a sign that the EU can force tech giants to change: “The alternative app store could become the most visible way to demonstrate how competition can work“, explains to Wired Andreas Schwab, a member of the European Parliament who contributed to the drafting of the DMA. Alternative app stores show that “the DMA can stimulate competition and thus lower prices for consumers“, adds Schwab.
War on the App Store
Epic’s move is a severe blow to Apple’s dominance in the iOS app sector. Sixteen years ago, the company launched its App Store marketplace, described at the time by Wired as a “turning point in the history of computing“. Apple has grown this business to generate $1.1 trillion in sales in 2022; today it is one of the company’s main sources of income.
However, over the years, developers creating apps for iOS have slowly begun to turn against the company. First, developers clashed with the 30% commission that Apple takes from certain in-app payments. Then there were privacy changes, notably the “Ask the app not to track” option, which reduced app advertising revenue, with an estimated $12 billion loss just for Facebook. Finally, there were rules regarding what developers could or could not submit to the app store. App updates that included links to the company’s website, for instance, were not allowed.
Sweeney stated that Epic has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on legal expenses to fight Apple in court. This, he added, adds to the lost revenues suffered when Apple banned Fortnite from the App Store in 2020. However, Sweeney declared that he believes all the expenses were worth it: “There is no price that is not worth paying for the freedom of all developers in the future of gaming“.
Epic’s Battle
The Epic Games Store was launched globally on PC and Mac in 2018. The launch of the iOS version means that European users of the company can now visit Epic.download to get the Epic Games Store for their phones, which can in turn be used to download apps for iPhone. However, according to Epic, installation on iOS is a cumbersome 15-step process, which includes what the company calls “scary screens” and dead ends. Epic argues that Apple has made the user experience “intentionally poor quality“ to disincentivize the use of alternative app stores.