Epic Games Removes Fortnite from Galaxy Store in Protest Against Samsung

Developer Epic Games The company is officially at war with Samsung. Removed all games from its catalogue on the Galaxy Storeincluding the popular Fortnite.

Anyone who has already installed the games on their Galaxy family tablets or phones won’t notice any difference in how the apps work. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said in a post on social network X that the company “We will continue to support Samsung devices unconditionally now and in the future.“.

Unfortunately, Fortnite and our other games will be leaving the Samsung Galaxy Store in protest of their new policy to prevent sideloading. This change prevents users from sideloading competitor stores, an issue we fought and won in the US Epic v Google US antitrust case.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) July 25, 2024

The action is a form of protest against the South Korean manufacturer’s new policy of blocking the installation of games or applications outside of official stores. Auto BlockerThe feature was introduced in One UI 6.0, Samsung’s interface for its own devices. In the latest update, 6.1.1, This mechanism is enabled by default. and must be manually closed by users.

Epic Games prefers to deliver its games directly to devices via APK downloads, because this a way to bypass the mandatory fees charged by app store owners About micro transactions — these are the main source of income not only for the game, but also for the developer.

Epic Games’ war against the giants

Epic Games has been fighting for years to be able to offer its games in parallel on mobile app stores. The case began in 2020 when Fortnite was banned on Android and iOS, which led to the studio taking legal action against Apple and Google.

After years in court, Epic Games has won partial victories. In the case of iOS, it has managed to require links and buttons in iOS apps and services to contract or subscribe outside of the App Store.

Epic Games is also expected to launch its own app and game store for Android soon. At least for now, it is not available on iOS. It will likely only work in the European Union via the App Store and Alt Store.This is the only region where Apple is required by law to make room for other app marketplaces.

So far, Samsung has not made any official comments on the matter.