Epic Games Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney renewed his attack on
Apple Inc. and
Alphabet Inc.'s Google as the world's dominant mobile duopoly before calling for a universal app store that works across all operating systems as the solution.
"What the world really needs now is a single store that works with all platforms," Sweeney said in an interview in Seoul on Tuesday. "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 working with developers and service providers to create a system that would allow users "to buy software in one place, knowing that they'd have it on all devices and all platforms."
Earlier in the day, Sweeney left no doubt about his disapproval of the smartphone software status quo in remarks at the Global Conference for Mobile Application Ecosystem Fairness in South Korea, home to the
world's first law requiring mobile platforms to give users a choice of payment handlers. His company's battle royale game Fortnite has been the subject of a bitter legal dispute with Apple and Google over the revenue split of sales on their platforms.
"Apple locks a billion users into one store and payment processor," he said. "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."
Google also earned a strong rebuke from Sweeney, who criticized its approach of charging fees on payments it doesn't process as "crazy." Praising Korea for leading the fight against monopolistic practices and including anti-retaliation provisions to protect developers in its legislation, the Epic Games founder said "I'm very proud to stand up against these monopolies with you. I'm proud to stand with you and say I'm a Korean."
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