Epic Games Store introduces third-party titles and free games program on mobile
Months after the official announcement, Epic Games Store has finally brought its free games program to mobile. Currently, the storefront is giving away Dungeon of the Endless: Apogee, and the next free game is set to be Bloons TD 6. These giveaways will remain active alongside the free PC titles that it gives away on a weekly basis.
Besides bringing the free games program to the mobile end, Epic Games Store is also introducing around 20 third-party smartphone titles to its smartphone stores. To be specific, a total of 15 titles are being added to the iOS app, while Android gets 17 third-party offerings. All of them, of course, are only available in the EU.
That said, this mobile gaming push from Epic Games Store hasn't been as smooth as it initially expected. As the storefront shares, one of the hurdles is getting gamers to install the app. The initial goal was to reach 100 million users by the end of 2024, but it has only 29 million users.
Epic says that the "onerous restrictions and scare screens" of Apple and Google are the reason why it does not have the expected number of users. As highlighted by the storefront, it takes 15 steps to get the app installed on iOS, while on Android, it takes 12 steps.
The storefront is also trying to get the highest-grossing mobile game developers to distribute their games on Epic Games Store. However, Apple's iOS Core Technology Fee (CTF) has been standing as a big challenge. To fill you in, Apple requires the developers to pay €0.50 per install after the game crosses 1 million downloads on a third-party store.
While this €0.50 fee may seem small, a popular game can make the developer pay an unmanageable amount if it's installed millions of times. To make things easier for the developers, Epic Games Store has announced that it will pay Apple's CTF for one year. While this is not a "financially viable" move, the firm hopes that the EU Commission will soon investigate Apple for its non-compliance with the Digital Markets Acts for this.
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