Epic CEO Tim Sweeney Wants Unified App Store

On Tuesday (Nov. 16), Epic Games Inc. CEO Tim Sweeney pushed for a universal app store in an interview with Bloomberg that also included the executive blasting Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google for their mobile duopolistic behavior.

Sweeney sees a universal app store as the solution to Apple and Google’s market dominance.

“What the world really needs now is a single store that works with all platforms,” Sweeney said in the Bloomberg report. “Right now, software ownership is fragmented between the iOS App Store, the Android Google Play marketplace, different stores on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch, and then Microsoft Store and the Mac App Store.”

Epic is crafting a system with developers and service providers to allow buyers “to buy software in one place, knowing that they’d have it on all devices and all platforms.”

Epic Games’ Fortnite has been at the center of a lengthy court battle with Apple and Google, rooted in how much revenue each party should get when players download the last-player-standing online sensation.

“Apple locks a billion users into one store and payment processor,” Sweeney said during the Global Conference for Mobile Application Ecosystem Fairness in South Korea. “Now Apple complies with oppressive foreign laws, which surveil users and deprive them of political rights. But Apple is ignoring laws passed by Korea’s democracy. Apple must be stopped.”

Sweeney also said it’s “crazy” that Google can charge fees on payments it doesn’t process. He applauded Korean leaders for fighting so strongly against monopolistic practices and including anti-retaliation provisions in its legislation to protect developers.

“I’m very proud to stand up against these monopolies with you,” Sweeney said. “I’m proud to stand with you and say I’m a Korean.”

Related: Federal Judge Orders Apple to Open App Store Payments as Planned

Last week, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said Apple was engaging in “incipient antitrust conduct” by denying app developers the ability to give their customers outside links for payments, adding that it must open its App Store payment gateways to third parties. Apple said it planned to request another stay.

Rogers’ Nov. 9 ruling was part of a wider antitrust suit filed by Epic Games that centers on Apple’s in-app payment system and associated commissions as high as 30%.