Fortnite maker Epic has confirmed its Games Store marketplace is launching on iPhone before the end of 2024, but not in the United States.
Keeping true to its promise, Epic has confirmed its store will hit iPhone due to the changes Apple recently made to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, including allowing alternative marketplaces and external web payments.
As a result, Epic Games Store will only run on iPhones with iOS 17.4 or later that are physically located within the European Union countries and have their Apple ID set to one of the bloc’s member countries.
Epic Games Store coming to iPhone, but not in the US
Epic shared details about how it plans to run its European store at the Game Developers Conference. Epic will collect 12 percent of revenue from titles purchased from its store, the same as on macOS and Windows. This compares to Apple’s reduced commission of 10 to 17 percent for App Store apps in Europe.
The Epic Games Store has a 88/12 revenue split for developers who distribute paid-for apps on PC and Mac and that will continue on mobile platforms. Developers do not pay Epic anything to distribute free apps.
However, Epic will surrender its cut during a game’s first six months and won’t collect fees on in-app purchases that use custom payment processing. By comparison, App Store apps that use the company’s In-App Purchase billing mechanism are charged an additional three percent commission.
If developers offer in-app purchases, they can choose to either use our payment processing system with the 88/12 revenue share or use a third party payment processor and keep 100% of that revenue, just like they do today.
In addition to Epic’s fee, each title will need to pay Apple its Core Technology Fee of 0.50 euro, which is charged for apps that zoom past one million first annual installs in the past 12 months in the European Union (the company charges a ten percent fee on App Store apps under a million downloads).
Due to Apple’s restrictions, games downloaded through Epic’s alternative marketplace on iPhone will stop updating if the user has been outside the European Union for over a month.
Epic will operate its store across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows and Android. On Apple’s platforms, the store will be restricted to the European Union and inaccessible from the United States and other countries.