 "Epic Games kicks off plan to add third-party games to own mobile store")
"Fortnite" maker Epic Games said on Thursday it will add 19 third-party games to its own marketplace app on Google's Android globally and 16 games on Apple's iOS in the European Union.
The videogame company had launched its mobile game store in 2024, allowing it to avoid fees imposed by conventional app marketplaces such as Google's Play and Apple's App Store while making in-app purchases.
Epic Games had also argued that users did not have much choice beyond the two popular app stores for downloading gaming applications, suppressing competition.
It will launch a program to offer free games on its mobile store, starting with titles such as "Bloons TD 6" and "Dungeon of the Endless: Apogee".
The company said it would temporarily cover core technology fees, the 0.50 euros ($0.5210) charged by Apple on every app after it crosses 1 million installs, for developers that participate in Epic's free-games program in Europe.
"We are opening up the Epic Games Store to mobile games from third parties, starting with a small catalog and expanding over time to a very big catalog," CEO Tim Sweeney told reporters.
"Our aim here isn't just to launch a bunch of different stores and different places, but to build a single cross-platform store."
North Carolina-based Epic Games reached 29 million users for its mobile store by end-2024, falling short of its target of 100 million users.
The company also offers a computer graphics software, called "Unreal Engine", which is widely used by app developers to design and develop games.
Apple had approved Epic Games' marketplace app in Europe last year. Epic had faced off with Google and Apple over their rules of charging up to 30% commissions on app store payments.
After getting banned for nearly four years, Epic's "Fortnite" returned on iPhones in the European Union and Android devices globally.
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