Epic’s Tim Sweeney: Fighting Apple and Google has cost Epic about $1 billion

The Fortnite maker is releasing a competing app store for iPhones and Android phones in the EU today. Epic's CEO says the high cost to compete has been worth it.

The Epic Game Store as it will be offered in Spain, thanks to EU regulatory changes. Image: Epic Games

U.S. tech giant Epic Games is launching its Epic Games Store marketplace on iOS and Android phones in the European Union today and re-launching the long-blocked Fortnite to that region—part of its ongoing effort to upend the mobile app ecosystem and, it argues, make mobile gaming in particular better for developers and gamers.

Epic’s efforts have been costly for a giant fighting even larger titans.

The company has spent hundreds of millions battling Apple and Google since 2020 to get to this point, Sweeney told Game File during an interview conducted earlier this week.

And, he added, Epic may have missed out on as much as $1 billion in Fortnite revenue in the process,

But Sweeney feels those costs have been worth it.

“If we spent a billion dollars so far, that's a small price to pay for the future freedom of our company and of all the others who want to participate in the market,” he said.

(Read to the end for some more colorful Sweeney quotes).