Epic Games announced on Thursday that its popular game “Fortnite” will soon return to Apple’s iOS systems in the European Union, despite an ongoing legal battle with Apple.
Epic has been striving to broaden the distribution of its games beyond the official app stores of smartphone companies. The company is challenging the high commissions on in-app payments and the restriction of downloading applications solely through dedicated app stores.
Additionally, Epic revealed that its games will be withdrawn from the Samsung Galaxy Store in response to Samsung’s decision to block default side-loading—the installation of applications without using its dedicated app store—on Android devices. Epic criticized this move as “anticompetitive.”
In a similar move, Epic announced that its mobile games will be available on AltStore for iOS in the EU. AltStore is a third-party platform that allows side-loading on iOS devices.
Epic Games also mentioned it will announce “support” for at least two additional third-party stores.
Furthermore, the company’s marketplace, the Epic Games Store, will soon be available on Android globally and on iOS in the European Union, though no specific timeline was provided.
In July, Apple approved Epic Games’ marketplace app for iPhones and iPads in Europe, following Epic’s intensification of its dispute with the tech giant.
Apple is currently under significant antitrust scrutiny for its App Store practices. In June, EU competition regulators stated that Apple’s practices violate the rules of the Digital Markets Act..