The Epic Games Store is available on iPhone – but there's one drawback

The Epic Games Store will be one of the first alternative app stores for iPhone, but developers will have to pay a hefty commission on each purchase.

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If you want to install an app on your iPhone, Apple has always directed you to the App Store. But this has changed since iOS 17.4. With this update, you can access alternative app stores on your iPhone for the first time, so you can also download apps that aren't in Apple's App Store. Just like you're used to from a Mac.

At the time of writing, developers are busy developing their own app stores, including Epic Games. This company is best known for Fortnite, which you can download on your Mac or PC via the Epic Games Store. This app store will soon also be coming to iPhone.

The Epic Games Store for iPhone is only available in the European Union. Last night, Epic revealed some new details during its Game Developers Conference (via 9to5Mac). The company hopes to bring App Stores to iPhones in the EU before the end of the year. Android devices can also access.

The Epic Game Store will soon contain games not only from Epic itself, but also from third parties. The relevant titles will be announced at a later date. The developers of these games receive 100% of the revenue during the first six months. But after that, Epic takes a 12% commission from all purchases made on the Epic Games Store. This is very cool.

Apple didn't just introduce alternative app stores: it had to do so because of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This EU law hopes to make competition between (technology) companies fairer by reducing the power of so-called “gatekeepers”. Apple's App Store used to be seen as a gatekeeper, because you couldn't download apps anywhere else on your iPhone. Therefore Apple can take full advantage of this.

One of Apple's benefits from the App Store is the so-called “Apple tax”: if you buy an app through Apple's App Store, the developer must hand over at least 30% of the revenue to Apple. Epic Games did not agree to this, which is why the company added an alternative payment system for its apps in the App Store in 2020. But this was against Apple's own rules, so all Epic apps were banned from the App Store.

In short: The fact that Epic has now decided to introduce an “Epic tax” for its game store seems very hypocritical at first glance. There is a high probability that third-party developers will end up charging extra for their apps once they have to pay the commission. At the same time, 12% is much lower than Apple's commission. Epic has been using the same ratio for purchases on Mac and PC for years. But the Epic Games Store hasn't made its iPhone debut yet, so that story will undoubtedly continue.

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