In the midst of some high profile titles being exclusive to the Epic Games Store – Ubisoft’s The Division 2 being one of the more recent ones – it is going to be expanding on to Android later this year as well. This bit was actually revealed by Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney in an interview with Game Informer in December 2018. Sweeney also mentioned wanting to launch on iOS this year, despite a conflict with Apple’s policies.
“The Epic Games store is launching on PC and Mac in 2018, and Android later in 2019,” he said. “We’d like to launch on iOS in 2019, however, that is in apparent conflict with current Apple policy. We believe all general purpose computing devices, such as PCs, smartphones, and tablets, should be open to competition between stores.
“Consoles are a different market, with dedicated game machines whose hardware costs are often partly subsidized by software revenue. Epic doesn’t seek to operate a storefront on console platforms, but as an engine maker we do everything we can to enable cross-platform interoperability.”
When GamesIndustry.biz asked for details on the company’s Android plans, Epic Games said that it was “premature” to provide details at this point. When the developer launched Fortnite on Android, it bypassed the Google Play Store entirely. The obvious assumption is that the Battle Royale title would be available via the Epic Games Store if it was available on mobile.
However, it also stands to reason that the storefront could be an alternative to the Google Play Store. Perhaps mobile titles could find better terms and more exposure on the same. Then again, it’s still too early to really determine Epic’s plans. Stay tuned for more updates in the meantime – 2019 is going to be a very interesting year.
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