Epic Games is launching webshops to allow developers to circumvent app store fees after new ruling

Epic Games is taking a victory lap. After notching a big win against Apple in a years-long legal dispute, Epic announced that its Epic Games Store will allow developers to open webshops, which can offer players out-of-app purchases to circumvent fees from Apple and Google.

Epic has been in a long legal battle with Apple over its iOS App Store fees, which take 30% of a developer’s earnings. A judge had ruled in 2021 that Apple couldn’t stop developers from directing customers to buy digital goods outside of the Apple ecosystem. But Wednesday night, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers wrote in a seething filing that Apple was intentionally violating her 2021 ruling.

Now Epic is bringing its flagship game Fortnite back to the iOS App Store, where it will incentivize users to buy Fortnite’s digital goods through Epic directly, since they’ll get a better price.

With the Epic Games Store’s new webshops feature, other developers will be more easily able to follow suit.

Usually, Epic takes a 12% share of a developer’s earnings from the Epic Games Store, which is still a better deal than what developers get from Apple. But starting in June, Epic Games will not take a cut from the first $1 million each game earns annually. Only after a game eclipses $1 million in revenue will Epic begin taking a cut.

“With new legal rulings in place, developers will be able to send players from games to make digital purchases from webshops on any platform that allows it, including iOS in the European Union and United States,” Epic said.