“Fortnite” is about to disappear from another mobile store as developer Epic Games has announced that it will no longer sell the game on the Samsung Galaxy Store

According to an Epic Games press release, this popular battle royale game and other titles in the Epic library will be withdrawn from “a mobile store that serves as a rental collector, serving all developers fairly and without firm competition” This includes the Galaxy Store, according to Epic, due to two factors: the impact of the Epic v Google lawsuit, in which Samsung allegedly received an anti-competitive proposal from Google, and Samsung's Auto Blocker tool are

Importantly, we are talking here about the Galaxy Store, Samsung's phone's own secondary app market, not the Google Play Store Fortnite is already not available on Google Play because Epic rejected the store's policy, leading to the Epic vs Google battle

Late last year, Samsung introduced an “auto-blocker” security feature on its phones that prevents (among other things) side-loading of apps and downloading via USB cable in an attempt to prevent users from installing malwareGalaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 new models recently found out, this puts an extra step between the user and sideloading, beyond disabling the “install from unknown source” toggle that is on all Android phones

The autoblocker can be disabled fairly easily by the user in the Settings app However, the fact that it is on by default appears to have pushed Epic over the cliff, causing the company to complain and remove the game

In a press release, Epic Games also announced that it is bringing Fortnite to three third-party app stores, including the iOS AltStore in the EU (the other two are unnamed), and also back to the main App Store in the EU They also announced the introduction of the Epic Games Store as a separate app store for iOS and Android, with its own terms and conditions for payment processing fees

For the average Samsung phone owner who enjoys Fortnite, it may be annoying to lose access to downloads and updates once the game is officially removed from the Galaxy Store However, thanks to Epic being allowed to open its own storefront in the Android app market, it looks like they will soon be able to access it through other means

On a higher level, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the outcome of Epic's antitrust victory against Google While the Epic v Apple case only extracted minimal concessions from Apple, the global trend is moving against Apple and Google's firm grip on their respective ecosystems A major example of this is the EU's Digital Markets Act, which essentially forced Apple to allow third-party app stores and emulators on iOS for the first time