Fortnite may be about to disappear from another mobile storefront as developer Epic Games has announced it'll no longer be selling its games via the Samsung Galaxy Store.
As an Epic Games press release explains, the popular battle royale game and other titles from the Epic library will leave "mobile stores that serve as rent collectors without competing robustly and serving all developers fairly." This includes the Galaxy Store, as Epic explains it, due to two factors — the fallout of the Epic v Google lawsuit in which Samsung received alleged anti-competitive proposals from Google, and Samsung's Auto Blocker tool.
Importantly, this is the Galaxy Store, the secondary app marketplace unique to Samsung phones, we're talking about here, not the Google Play Store. Fortnite is already unavailable on Google Play because of Epic's rejection of the store's policies that lead to Epic v Google.
The problem with Auto Blocker
Samsung introduced Auto Blocker to its phones late last year, a security feature that prevents sideloading apps and downloads via USB cable (among other things) to try to prevent users from installing malware. This puts an extra step between users and sideloading beyond disabling the "install from unknown sources" toggle that all Android phones have, as Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 receiving their new phones have recently found out.
Auto Blocker can be disabled by the user fairly easily in the Settings app. But the fact it's on by default seems to be what's tipped Epic over the edge and caused it to cry foul and remove its games.
Epic's next move
Epic Games also announces in the press release it will be putting Fortnite on three third-party app stores, including AltStore (the other two aren't named) on iOS in the EU, as well as return to the main EU App Store. It also announced that it will be introducing the Epic Games Store as a standalone app store on iOS and Android, with payment processing fees on its own terms.
For the average Samsung phone owner who enjoys Fortnite, it may be annoying to lose access to downloads and updates once the game's officially yanked from the Galaxy Store. However, it sounds like you'll soon have access by other means thanks to Epic now being allowed to open up its own stall in the Android app market.
On a higher level, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the consequences of Epic winning its anti-trust case against Google. Although the Epic v Apple case only extracted minimal concessions from Apple, the tide worldwide is moving against Apple and Google's firm grip on their respective ecosystems. A big example of this is the EU's Digital Markets Act which has essentially forced Apple to allow third-party app stores and emulators on iOS for the first time.
