STOCKHOLM - Fortnite-creator Epic Games launched its own app store Friday that allows users to bypass the stores run by Apple and Google after waging a years-long battle to directly offer its games to smartphone users.
The Epic Games Store is available to users of Android phones worldwide and for iPhone and iPad users in Europe.
The launch of the store comes after Epic waged legal battles and lobbied regulators to loosen the grip of Apple and Google on the sale of apps for phones running their operating systems.
"We're very happy to be on the verge of launching our games on iOS and Android, enabled by Europe's new DMA law," Epic's chief executive Tim Sweeney told journalists from the company's office in Sweden.
The EU's new law, known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), has forced Apple to make the opening to app developers in Europe but the US firm is not doing so elsewhere.
"The DMA required us to enable new capabilities for developers in the EU, and we have worked to make them as easy as possible for users while also trying to protect their privacy and security," Apple said Friday.
The EU's internal market commissioner Thierry Breton posted on X that "Yes, gamers, Europe means more #FREEDOM & choice!"
Fortnite is also making a return to iPhones and iPads after having been banned in 2020 for seeking to circumvent Apple's payment systems.
Epic in 2020 launched a case aimed at breaking Apple's grip on the App Store, accusing the iPhone maker of operating a monopoly in its shop for digital services.
But it lost its challenge to Apple taking a cut of as much as 30 percent on all financial transactions in its app shop in a US federal court. In January the US Supreme Court declined to hear the case, effectively ending the legal saga.
Apple has justified the fees as helping ensure dangerous apps are weeded out and the operating system is secure.
Epic is the first major video game publisher to open its own app store for Android and Apple devices.