4 ms·

The Epic Games Store Launches on iOS and Android

68 points by noch 2y ago

Elfener 2y ago
You've heard "available on android" and "available on ios", get ready for "available on ios (europe only)".
- pohuing 2y ago
  Funny to see this go the other way for once. Usually it's us waiting for NA only products to trickle over.
- Tomte 2y ago
  Also, only iOS, not iPadOS. Although I'm pretty sure the EU will force that, as well.
  - galad87 2y ago
    Already done, third party stores will be possible in iPadOS 18.
- dunekid 2y ago
  I guess europe in this case extends to Americas, by the existence of French Guiana and other outermost EU regions. I am wondering if that could pave way for some technological quirks if these things do not trickle into NA quick enough.
- mstolpm 2y ago
  There is already the opposite situation: "available on iOS AppStore (except in EU)". And that might pop up more often in the future.
  - self_awareness 2y ago
    mstolpm wrote: > There is already the opposite situation: "available on iOS AppStore (except in > EU)". And that might pop up more often in the future. We already have lots of that related to website access. "Not available due to GDPR" is a pretty common error message for me. If anyone wants to reply that "I've just dodged a bullet thanks to EU blocking unethical websites" then all I can say is I know how to dodge bullets by myself, thanks.
    - rvschuilenburg 2y ago
      >If anyone wants to reply that "I've just dodged a bullet thanks to EU blocking unethical websites" then all I can say is I know how to dodge bullets by myself, thanks. These websites did not get blocked by the EU. These websites chose to block themselves because they did not want to put in the effort to be GDPR compliant.
      - ffgjgf1 2y ago
        Which is functionally the same? EU can’t ban websites, but the threat of very high fines is effectively the same. Also when it comes to random news websites (especially smaller local ones) what sort risks are there? The aren’t handling your personal information and if you’re afraid about them selling your browsing history to third parties there are way to fix that locally
        lucianbr 2y ago
        > what sort risks are there? The aren’t handling your personal information The sites themselves disagree with you. They think there's risk, which is why they decided to not work in the EU. EU does not "threaten very high fines" to sites that do not collect PII. GDPR does nothing if you don't collect information. But they obviously do collect it, despite your denial.
        ffgjgf1 2y ago
        I meant risk for consumers due to those sites not complying with GDPR. Of course the site owners think there it introduces unnecessary risks for them, that was more or less what my initial comment was about. > But they obviously do collect it, despite your denial. How? are you somehow compelled to share you name and address with random local/small new-sites from the US They very likely are just using ads and/or analytics services which technically don’t comply with GDPR..
        lucianbr 2y ago
stavros 2y ago
I'm looking forward to this, even if only to have an alternative Android store that doesn't take such an egregious fee. I just want the market forces to decide the cut, instead of the monopolies. The only thing left to fix is Apple's ridiculous "fee for not putting things on our store". Hopefully someone will do this soon, if the Epic store isn't this (or is this for just games).
- indy 2y ago
  If you're on Android try installing the F-Droid app store, lots of open source apps are available on it (and Droid-ify is a good looking client for F-Droid if you want an app store UI with Material design)
  - stavros 2y ago
    I already have F-droid, Obtainium, etc, but these are pretty niche. It will be great to have something mass-market (not just for FOSS) that most consumers will have on their phones. Thanks for Droid-ify, I didn't know about that!
- dools 2y ago
  "I just want the market forces to decide the cut, instead of the monopolies" Ironically it is the fetish with free market economics that produces the monopolies. I wonder how many "techno optimist" libertarians are also cheering the fact that Apple has been forced by government regulation to allow competitors onto their platform.
  - chii 2y ago
    > Ironically it is the fetish with free market economics that produces the monopolies. only when there's not sufficient regulations from cartel like behaviour. At the risk of invoking the no-real-scotsman fallacy, i would say that a real free market cannot support a monopoly, unless said monopoly is taking as thin a cut of the profit as possible (thus leaving no room for competition as the initial outlay of capital would not be worth it).
arlcode 2y ago
That process they show in the youtube video is pretty involved and very complex for no other reason than to keep people locked in to the apple store. As a layman I doubt this is compliant with the appropriate EU laws (specifically the DMA) Unfortunately this behaviour does not come as a surprise but I certainly hope the regulatory "beatings" will continue until compliance improves.
- kiririn 2y ago
  It’s no worse than the process for installing an android apk downloaded using the browser for the first time See the video for Android for comparison
  - nodja 2y ago
    If you don't know what you're doing, on ios you need a separate video with instructions (or fumble around) to figure out how to install a third party app, while on android the prompts guide you. On android when you download an apk and try to install it, you get a popup saying something like "Chrome needs permission to install unknown apps." with a button to cancel or go directly to the settings and give chrome the permissions, after you enable the permissions you also get the prompt to install the apk right away. This is the equivalent on windows to just clicking next half a dozen times to install some software, on ios you have to trigger the install, go manually to the settings and enable the permission, then trigger the install again.
- aranelsurion 2y ago
  Just installed the Epic Store, my experience step-by-step: 1. Go to Epic Store website, click on Install 2. Nothing happens 3. Click again 4. Popup message appears, I click OK 5. Popup gone. Do I have the app now? 6. No I don’t. I read the steps again. 7. Ooh I needed to go to Settings and approve it there. 8. I went to Settings, it appears at the top. I click. 9. Another popup with lots of text appears. I click yes. 10. Now I need to go back to that Epic page and hit Install again for the third time. 11. Click “Install”. Nothing happens. 12. Get annoyed, click Install five more times. Another popup appears. 13. I click yes. 14. Finally, I have the Epic Store installed! It’s hard to imagine this experience wasn’t intentionally made so awful.
notpushkin 2y ago
> Fortnite, Fall Guys, and Rocket League Sideswipe All Coming to the Epic Games Store for iPhones and Android, and to AltStore That's an interesting move! I'm wondering how they are planning to handle payments there. UPD: also would be really cool if they decide to run an F-Droid repo!
WhereIsTheTruth 2y ago
[flagged]
- supermatt 2y ago
  [flagged]
- ffgjgf1 2y ago
  > I welcome all the downvotes, facts are long gone To be fair I’m only downvoting because you couldn’t provide any coherent or rational arguments or claims (and to be fair it’s not even clear what are you trying to say) and not because of some “ideological” reasons
  - WhereIsTheTruth 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - piltdownman 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - WhereIsTheTruth 2y ago
        [flagged]
        piltdownman 2y ago
        [flagged]
aurareturn 2y ago
Just curious. On the other thread, people complain that Google didn't take down a scam app fast enough. People obviously complain about the 30% commission fee for digital goods. So if people don't want to pay the commission, and they want Google to police all the apps, isn't that just a giant cost for Google without a way of making it sustainable? Unless people are ok with drastically higher initial phone hardware costs to make up for the loss revenue on app store commissions? For example, let's say the average phone now costs $1,000 and Google can collect 30% commission. Let's say countries ban the commission. Google has to make money somehow. They make the phone cost $2,000 now and also they no longer make Android open source to restrict workarounds. Would people prefer that more?
- meiraleal 2y ago
  > Google has to make money somehow Stop. Just stop. Google "somehow" made $305.63B last year.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- ffgjgf1 2y ago
  Why? Is MS expected to do this for Windows or Apple for macOS? Obviously they can still charge the 30% for their own app stores and use that money for moderation. Why would anyone expect them to be responsible for 3rd party stores? > also they no longer make Android open source I don’t think that’s feasible at this point. Also $1000 per phone is not even remotely close to what they’d be losing (at least by a magnitude if not several..) In any case Android is mainly there to funnel users into search and their other ad-funded services. Basically a cost saving measure to reduce the amount of money they need to pay Apple for keeping Google as the default search engine on iOS.
- sebstefan 2y ago
  They can't have their cake and eat it too. When you entrench yourself in a monopoly, there are duties that come with it There could've been other app stores. There could've been a choice at startup like there is for browsers. There could've been 4 or 5 app stores installed by default whether you're on a Pixel or on a Samsung device. It is nobody's fault but Google's that they became a gatekeeper with their app store. Ie: How hard open OSes have to fight to de-googlify a phone. How they push to have it installed by default, which forces me to put my apps on the Play store as 99% of users would go there to look for my apps. Then there are scare screens to fend off the installation of competing app stores. Then once you've actually managed to install a competing app-store like F-Droid, it has to beg you to go into the settings and check some boxes or it won't be able to perform installations properly.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
zokier 2y ago
I've always wondered why Steam hasn't gotten into Android game market. Feels like it would be just free money for them, and gamers like me would be happy if they could play some of the games from their library on mobile.
- fulafel 2y ago
  Even for the Steam Deck it's clearly a big project to get a critical mass of games working on a non-PC device, and that's much easier than Android (only one model of device, no need to port code to another OS and platform, no need to port game interface to touch UI, etc). Ask any Android game developer and the support & cross testing of the zoo of device models and OS versions is a huge part of the work. Plus on Android they'd be trying to convince Steam publishers to enter a platform where users don't pay for games but rather watch ads or make IAPs, so they wouldn't really get the right kind of paying customers from there.
39896880 2y ago
Question for someone who is a fan of brand-specific game stores: what do you like about them? Personally I find the idea of apps-within-apps annoying and convoluted, but I’m willing to entertain the notion that I’m a luddite.
- ffgjgf1 2y ago
  Cheaper IAP tokens/coins/etc. ?
- lbwtaylor 2y ago
  I don't feel the need to pay a commission for a digital storefront. I know a lot of folks find value in app store/steam etc... but I find almost no value. At the same price, I would rather the money go to the seller of the product and I definitely don't want to pay more for a storefront. I find the normal reasons people like digital storefronts not very compelling: safety, reviews, all in one place, etc... I also worry about everything being in one account. If I lose my epic games account, I'm not going to worry too much. If Valve locks me out, I'm in trouble, so I would rather diversify away from Valve if I can.

68 points by noch 2y ago

Elfener 2y ago

You've heard "available on android" and "available on ios", get ready for "available on ios (europe only)".

pohuing 2y ago
Funny to see this go the other way for once. Usually it's us waiting for NA only products to trickle over.
Tomte 2y ago
Also, only iOS, not iPadOS. Although I'm pretty sure the EU will force that, as well.
- galad87 2y ago
  Already done, third party stores will be possible in iPadOS 18.
dunekid 2y ago
I guess europe in this case extends to Americas, by the existence of French Guiana and other outermost EU regions. I am wondering if that could pave way for some technological quirks if these things do not trickle into NA quick enough.
mstolpm 2y ago
There is already the opposite situation: "available on iOS AppStore (except in EU)". And that might pop up more often in the future.
- self_awareness 2y ago
  mstolpm wrote: > There is already the opposite situation: "available on iOS AppStore (except in > EU)". And that might pop up more often in the future. We already have lots of that related to website access. "Not available due to GDPR" is a pretty common error message for me. If anyone wants to reply that "I've just dodged a bullet thanks to EU blocking unethical websites" then all I can say is I know how to dodge bullets by myself, thanks.
  - rvschuilenburg 2y ago
    >If anyone wants to reply that "I've just dodged a bullet thanks to EU blocking unethical websites" then all I can say is I know how to dodge bullets by myself, thanks. These websites did not get blocked by the EU. These websites chose to block themselves because they did not want to put in the effort to be GDPR compliant.
    - ffgjgf1 2y ago
      Which is functionally the same? EU can’t ban websites, but the threat of very high fines is effectively the same. Also when it comes to random news websites (especially smaller local ones) what sort risks are there? The aren’t handling your personal information and if you’re afraid about them selling your browsing history to third parties there are way to fix that locally
      - lucianbr 2y ago
        > what sort risks are there? The aren’t handling your personal information The sites themselves disagree with you. They think there's risk, which is why they decided to not work in the EU. EU does not "threaten very high fines" to sites that do not collect PII. GDPR does nothing if you don't collect information. But they obviously do collect it, despite your denial.
        ffgjgf1 2y ago
        I meant risk for consumers due to those sites not complying with GDPR. Of course the site owners think there it introduces unnecessary risks for them, that was more or less what my initial comment was about. > But they obviously do collect it, despite your denial. How? are you somehow compelled to share you name and address with random local/small new-sites from the US They very likely are just using ads and/or analytics services which technically don’t comply with GDPR..
        lucianbr 2y ago

stavros 2y ago

I'm looking forward to this, even if only to have an alternative Android store that doesn't take such an egregious fee. I just want the market forces to decide the cut, instead of the monopolies. The only thing left to fix is Apple's ridiculous "fee for not putting things on our store". Hopefully someone will do this soon, if the Epic store isn't this (or is this for just games).

indy 2y ago
If you're on Android try installing the F-Droid app store, lots of open source apps are available on it (and Droid-ify is a good looking client for F-Droid if you want an app store UI with Material design)
- stavros 2y ago
  I already have F-droid, Obtainium, etc, but these are pretty niche. It will be great to have something mass-market (not just for FOSS) that most consumers will have on their phones. Thanks for Droid-ify, I didn't know about that!
dools 2y ago
"I just want the market forces to decide the cut, instead of the monopolies" Ironically it is the fetish with free market economics that produces the monopolies. I wonder how many "techno optimist" libertarians are also cheering the fact that Apple has been forced by government regulation to allow competitors onto their platform.
- chii 2y ago
  > Ironically it is the fetish with free market economics that produces the monopolies. only when there's not sufficient regulations from cartel like behaviour. At the risk of invoking the no-real-scotsman fallacy, i would say that a real free market cannot support a monopoly, unless said monopoly is taking as thin a cut of the profit as possible (thus leaving no room for competition as the initial outlay of capital would not be worth it).

arlcode 2y ago

That process they show in the youtube video is pretty involved and very complex for no other reason than to keep people locked in to the apple store. As a layman I doubt this is compliant with the appropriate EU laws (specifically the DMA) Unfortunately this behaviour does not come as a surprise but I certainly hope the regulatory "beatings" will continue until compliance improves.

kiririn 2y ago
It’s no worse than the process for installing an android apk downloaded using the browser for the first time See the video for Android for comparison
- nodja 2y ago
  If you don't know what you're doing, on ios you need a separate video with instructions (or fumble around) to figure out how to install a third party app, while on android the prompts guide you. On android when you download an apk and try to install it, you get a popup saying something like "Chrome needs permission to install unknown apps." with a button to cancel or go directly to the settings and give chrome the permissions, after you enable the permissions you also get the prompt to install the apk right away. This is the equivalent on windows to just clicking next half a dozen times to install some software, on ios you have to trigger the install, go manually to the settings and enable the permission, then trigger the install again.
aranelsurion 2y ago
Just installed the Epic Store, my experience step-by-step: 1. Go to Epic Store website, click on Install 2. Nothing happens 3. Click again 4. Popup message appears, I click OK 5. Popup gone. Do I have the app now? 6. No I don’t. I read the steps again. 7. Ooh I needed to go to Settings and approve it there. 8. I went to Settings, it appears at the top. I click. 9. Another popup with lots of text appears. I click yes. 10. Now I need to go back to that Epic page and hit Install again for the third time. 11. Click “Install”. Nothing happens. 12. Get annoyed, click Install five more times. Another popup appears. 13. I click yes. 14. Finally, I have the Epic Store installed! It’s hard to imagine this experience wasn’t intentionally made so awful.

notpushkin 2y ago

> Fortnite, Fall Guys, and Rocket League Sideswipe All Coming to the Epic Games Store for iPhones and Android, and to AltStore That's an interesting move! I'm wondering how they are planning to handle payments there. UPD: also would be really cool if they decide to run an F-Droid repo!

WhereIsTheTruth 2y ago

[flagged]

supermatt 2y ago
[flagged]
ffgjgf1 2y ago
> I welcome all the downvotes, facts are long gone To be fair I’m only downvoting because you couldn’t provide any coherent or rational arguments or claims (and to be fair it’s not even clear what are you trying to say) and not because of some “ideological” reasons
- WhereIsTheTruth 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - piltdownman 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - WhereIsTheTruth 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - piltdownman 2y ago
        [flagged]

aurareturn 2y ago

Just curious. On the other thread, people complain that Google didn't take down a scam app fast enough. People obviously complain about the 30% commission fee for digital goods. So if people don't want to pay the commission, and they want Google to police all the apps, isn't that just a giant cost for Google without a way of making it sustainable? Unless people are ok with drastically higher initial phone hardware costs to make up for the loss revenue on app store commissions? For example, let's say the average phone now costs $1,000 and Google can collect 30% commission. Let's say countries ban the commission. Google has to make money somehow. They make the phone cost $2,000 now and also they no longer make Android open source to restrict workarounds. Would people prefer that more?

meiraleal 2y ago
> Google has to make money somehow Stop. Just stop. Google "somehow" made $305.63B last year.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
ffgjgf1 2y ago
Why? Is MS expected to do this for Windows or Apple for macOS? Obviously they can still charge the 30% for their own app stores and use that money for moderation. Why would anyone expect them to be responsible for 3rd party stores? > also they no longer make Android open source I don’t think that’s feasible at this point. Also $1000 per phone is not even remotely close to what they’d be losing (at least by a magnitude if not several..) In any case Android is mainly there to funnel users into search and their other ad-funded services. Basically a cost saving measure to reduce the amount of money they need to pay Apple for keeping Google as the default search engine on iOS.
sebstefan 2y ago
They can't have their cake and eat it too. When you entrench yourself in a monopoly, there are duties that come with it There could've been other app stores. There could've been a choice at startup like there is for browsers. There could've been 4 or 5 app stores installed by default whether you're on a Pixel or on a Samsung device. It is nobody's fault but Google's that they became a gatekeeper with their app store. Ie: How hard open OSes have to fight to de-googlify a phone. How they push to have it installed by default, which forces me to put my apps on the Play store as 99% of users would go there to look for my apps. Then there are scare screens to fend off the installation of competing app stores. Then once you've actually managed to install a competing app-store like F-Droid, it has to beg you to go into the settings and check some boxes or it won't be able to perform installations properly.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

zokier 2y ago

I've always wondered why Steam hasn't gotten into Android game market. Feels like it would be just free money for them, and gamers like me would be happy if they could play some of the games from their library on mobile.

fulafel 2y ago
Even for the Steam Deck it's clearly a big project to get a critical mass of games working on a non-PC device, and that's much easier than Android (only one model of device, no need to port code to another OS and platform, no need to port game interface to touch UI, etc). Ask any Android game developer and the support & cross testing of the zoo of device models and OS versions is a huge part of the work. Plus on Android they'd be trying to convince Steam publishers to enter a platform where users don't pay for games but rather watch ads or make IAPs, so they wouldn't really get the right kind of paying customers from there.

39896880 2y ago

Question for someone who is a fan of brand-specific game stores: what do you like about them? Personally I find the idea of apps-within-apps annoying and convoluted, but I’m willing to entertain the notion that I’m a luddite.

ffgjgf1 2y ago
Cheaper IAP tokens/coins/etc. ?
lbwtaylor 2y ago
I don't feel the need to pay a commission for a digital storefront. I know a lot of folks find value in app store/steam etc... but I find almost no value. At the same price, I would rather the money go to the seller of the product and I definitely don't want to pay more for a storefront. I find the normal reasons people like digital storefronts not very compelling: safety, reviews, all in one place, etc... I also worry about everything being in one account. If I lose my epic games account, I'm not going to worry too much. If Valve locks me out, I'm in trouble, so I would rather diversify away from Valve if I can.