“They [Apple] are preventing an entire category of businesses and applications from being engulfed in their ecosystem by virtue of excluding competitors from each aspect of their business that they’re protecting,” Sweeney said.
Epic previously made Fortnite available to Android devices not by offering it on the Google Play Store, but instead through a launcher on the Fortnite website that downloaded the game. This allowed Epic to sidestep the 30 percent fee from Google. But the download process was too involved for many users, so Fortnite eventually launched on Google Play earlier this year. Sweeney said the company still plans to bring the Epic Games Store to Android. “Google essentially intentionally stifles competing stores by having user interface barriers and obstruction,” Sweeney said.
Epic isn’t the first company to speak out against Apple and Google’s 30 percent fee. In March of last year, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek filed an unfair competition complaint against Apple with the European Commission, citing the fee as forcing them to artificially inflate the price of its Spotify Premium membership. Last July, Tinder introduced a default payment process into its Android app meant to bypass the Google Play Store fee.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Comments
19
Shares
