Apple Okays Epic Games Marketplace App in Europe

Smartphone with Epic Games logo is seen in front of Apple logo in this illustration taken, May 2, 2021. (Reuters)
Smartphone with Epic Games logo is seen in front of Apple logo in this illustration taken, May 2, 2021. (Reuters)
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Apple Okays Epic Games Marketplace App in Europe

Smartphone with Epic Games logo is seen in front of Apple logo in this illustration taken, May 2, 2021. (Reuters)
Smartphone with Epic Games logo is seen in front of Apple logo in this illustration taken, May 2, 2021. (Reuters)

Apple said on Friday it has approved Epic Games' games marketplace app on iPhones and iPads in Europe, after the "Fortnite" maker escalated its feud with the technology giant, accusing it of hindering its efforts to set up a games store on the devices.

Apple said the latest spat concerned the Epic Sweden AB Marketplace and has nothing to do with the video games maker's Fortnite app which has already been given the green light.

Apps developers and antitrust regulators have criticized Apple's tight control of the iOS app ecosystem.

Before Apple's announcement, Epic said the iPhone maker had twice rejected documents the video-game publisher submitted to launch the Epic Games Store because the design of certain buttons and labels was similar to those used by its App Store.

"We are using the same "Install" and "In-app purchases" naming conventions that are used across popular app stores on multiple platforms, and are following standard conventions for buttons in iOS apps," Epic said in a series of posts on X.

"Apple's rejection is arbitrary, obstructive, and in violation of the DMA (Digital Markets Act), and we've shared our concerns with the European Commission," it said.

The European Commission, which opened an investigation into the checks and reviews put in place by Apple to validate apps and alternative app stores to be sideloaded last month, declined to comment.

Epic and Apple have been waging a legal battle since 2020, when the gaming firm alleged Apple's practice of charging up to 30% commissions on in-app payments on its iPhone Operating System (iOS) devices violated US antitrust rules.

Early this year, Apple proposed changes to its App Store policies to comply with certain directives of the DMA that went into force in March.

It allowed alternative app stores on iPhones and an opt-out from using the in-app payments system, but set a "core technology fee", which several developers found exploitative.



Microsoft Hosts Developer Conference as Focus Grows on AI Profits

A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
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Microsoft Hosts Developer Conference as Focus Grows on AI Profits

A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

Microsoft hosts its annual software developer conference in Seattle on Monday, drawing thousands of coders looking to turn the past years of investments into artificial intelligence into profitable products and services for consumers and businesses.

The Redmond, Washington-based software giant, which is an investor and deep strategic partner with ChatGPT creator OpenAI, and has already spent $64 billion this year, much of it on data centers needed for AI-based services such as Copilot used in its popular Microsoft 365 applications.

But there are signs that Microsoft -- whose shares are up more than 30% this year, defying a broader Nasdaq decline -- is reworking its relationship with OpenAI and seeking to become a neutral arms dealer in the AI race, Reuters reported.

Earlier this year, Microsoft allowed OpenAI to branch out and work with Oracle on the massive "Stargate" data center project in Texas.

Meanwhile, CEO Satya Nadella has argued the company can get expenses down, saying that once it settles on an algorithm and begins to optimize it, Microsoft can obtain 10 times better performance for the same computing costs.

Demand for AI services in Microsoft's Azure cloud computing is also continuing to grow.

Thomas Blakey, an equity analyst with Cantor Fitzgerald, said that the company is increasingly keeping revenue-generating AI services inside its own data centers, where it can continue to tweak them for better cost.

It shifting to only using outside data center services such as CoreWeave, which is known as a "neocloud" that focuses on offering AI chips from Nvidia, when Microsoft needs short bursts of extra computing power for specific projects.

"If they have to flex up in some way, they've been consistently saying that they're going to shift away from buying more data centers and dirt and cement and they're going to leave that to the neoclouds," Blakey told Reuters.