Today, after years of legal battles and regulatory drama, some people can play Fortnite on their phones again via Epic’s newly-launched mobile Epic Games Store. It’s not available in all areas on all devices, but if you’re a global Android user or an iPhone user in the EU, you can jump through a whole mess of hoops to shotgun someone while dressed as a banana dressed as Wolverine.
All of this began almost exactly four years ago, when Epic launched its own payment systems for Fortnite on mobile devices in August 2020. Epic mostly lost the ensuing court battle with Apple, but won against Google. Apple has been dragging its heels and throwing wrenches in the works since, but today Epic has gotten some of what it wanted in the form of its mobile store. I’m tempted to roll my eyes at all this, feeling a bit permanently poisoned by Epic’s vibes around the whole thing, but it’s actually a pretty big deal: increased anti-trust attention on these big companies and their store policies has highlighted the ways their iron grip harms both developers and players, and loosening that grip is inarguably a good thing.
But to actually install the mobile Epic Games Store and play Fortnite, as well as mobile versions of Epic-owned Rocket League and Fall Guys, you’ll need to click through several settings menus and ignore multiple warnings. There are so many steps that Epic has made videos explaining it, in which you can practically hear the narrator sighing in frustration as they say “There are a lot of steps, and we’re here to help.”
Here’s the Android instructions:
In the nearly two minute video, Epic explains that first “you’ll get a popup saying the file might be harmful, which isn’t true,” so you should select “download anyway.” Then, before the store starts installing, “you’ll probably see a security notice saying your phone isn’t allowed to install apps from this source,” which you’ll have to change in settings and agree to a confirmation. You’ll get another source-related popup once you’ve downloaded the store and want to install your first game from it, which requires a trip back to settings and another confirmation. “Whew, we did it!” declares the narrator, before noting that Epic is working on making this process easier in the future, alongside “regulators around the world.”
The installation process is slightly less messy on EU iPhones, but not by much, though the iOS video is 12 seconds shorter than the Android one. And none of it is as seamless or confidence-inspiring as just installing an app from the big stores that you're probably used to.
Is some average parent going to power through all this, wading through the intimidating warnings and extra confirmations, just to give their kid Fortnite? If their kid insists enough, and shows their parent these videos, and repeatedly assures them the mobile EGS isn't just spam designed to steal their credit card information, maybe. But in this age of increased online scams, I wouldn’t fault anyone not up to date on this whole saga for giving up. Epic’s decision to make tutorials is a good idea, and especially to make them so staid, clearly aimed at adults with phones and not young Fortnite players. It’s wild to me how complicated this whole process is, and I’ll be curious to see if it has a demonstrable consequence of keeping people away from alternate app stores.
But Epic seems determined to stay the course: In his Game File newsletter today, our old boss Stephen has Tim Sweeney saying that
it might well be a billion dollars of lost revenue in four years of Fortnite being off the iOS App Store…
And there's really no price that isn't worth paying for freedom, for all developers and the future of gaming…. if we spent a billion dollars so far, that's a small price to pay for the future freedom of our company and of all of the others who want to participate in the market.
Sweeney goes on to say
The entire game industry is in a suppressed state, compared to what it would be if there were a free and open competition among stores. Developers would make a lot more money. Developers would lower the prices because the profit-maximizing price is actually quite a bit lower than the current price…
So we regard the mobile gaming business as largely broken. As evidence to that, look at the dearth of awesome games that are at the top of the charts and look at UA [user acquisition] arbitrage that's leading to casino games and super greedy pay-to-win and loot box-type games being in all the leading categories. That’s a result of the dysfunction that arises from the many forms of malpractice of the App Store practices: the taxes, but also the marketing and promotional strategies and the data strategies and so on.
While I’m not sure I believe in the benevolent hand of the free market, Sweeney isn’t essentially wrong here. I have to give Epic some grudging respect for continuing to pursue all this, though I’d rather that billion dollars have gone to keep Epic staff from losing their jobs.
Epic has an extra carrot to dangle today to encourage a baffled parent through these hoops. Alongside the mobile store, Fortnite’s new season launches today; it’s Marvel themed, just as it was in August 2020, shortly after Fortnite was first taken off phones.
