Epic Still Intends to Release an Epic Games Store Mobile App this Year

Epic Games has been a frequent headliner with their efforts toward the Epic Games Store. But many have forgotten another major intention of the company's: an Epic Games Store mobile app.

Rebekah Valentine recently drew focus on an interview between the company founder Time Sweeney and GameInformer last December, where they talk about their upcoming ambitions. This included the possibility of a mobile store.

"The Epic Games store is launching on PC and Mac in 2018, and Android later in 2019. We'd like to launch on iOS in 2019, however, that is in apparent conflict with the current Apple policy. We believe all general purpose computing devices, such as PCs, smartphones, and tablets, should be open to competition between stores."

This is the opposite direction from their console plans, which are lacking.

"Consoles are a different market, with dedicated game machines whose hardware costs are often partly subsidized by software revenue. Epic doesn't seek to operate a storefront on console platforms, but as an engine maker we do everything we can to enable cross-platform interoperability."

To clarify, Apple has a strict policy that apps do not sell other software on itself that isn't approved by Apple within the iOS environment. This caused major trouble with Steam when they were rejected for the SteamLink iOS app, citing the ability to purchase software for your PC as the reason.

It's not clear as to what the Android Epic Store will provide outside of Fortnite. Epic has stated that it's too soon to say more about their plans. If you sell games within a mobile wrapper like this, do you still have to relinquish 30 percent to Google?