Samsung and Epic Games Call a Truce In App Store Lawsuit (arstechnica.com) 12
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Epic Games, buoyed by the massive success of Fortnite, has spent the last few years throwing elbows in the mobile industry to get its app store on more phones. It scored an antitrust win against Google in late 2023, and the following year it went after Samsung for deploying "Auto Blocker" on its Android phones, which would make it harder for users to install the Epic Games Store. Now, the parties have settled the case just days before Samsung will unveil its latest phones.
The Epic Store drama began several years ago when the company defied Google and Apple rules about accepting outside payments in the mega-popular Fortnite. Both stores pulled the app, and Epic sued. Apple emerged victorious, with Fortnite only returning to the iPhone recently. Google, however, lost the case after Epic showed it worked behind the scenes to stymie the development of app stores like Epic's. Google is still working to avoid penalties in that long-running case, but Epic thought it smelled a conspiracy last year. It filed a similar lawsuit against Samsung, accusing it of implementing a feature to block third-party app stores. The issue comes down to the addition of a feature to Samsung phones called Auto Blocker, which is similar to Google's new Advanced Protection in Android 16. It protects against attacks over USB, disables link previews, and scans apps more often for malicious activity. Most importantly, it blocks app sideloading. Without sideloading, there's no way to install the Epic Games Store or any of the content inside it.
Auto Blocker is enabled by default on Samsung phones, but users can opt out during setup. Epic claimed in its suit that the sudden inclusion of this feature was a sign that Google was working with Samsung to stand in the way of alternative app stores again. Epic has apparently gotten what it wanted from Samsung -- CEO Tim Sweeney has announced that Epic is dropping the case in light of a new settlement. Sweeney said Samsung "will address Epic's concerns," without elaborating on the details. Samsung may stop making Auto Blocker the default or create a whitelist of apps, like the Epic Games Store, that can bypass Auto Blocker. Another possibility is that Epic and select third-party stores are granted special access while Auto Blocker remains on for others, balancing security and openness.
A "more interesting outcome," according to Ars, would be for Samsung to pre-install the Epic Games Store on its new phones.
The Epic Store drama began several years ago when the company defied Google and Apple rules about accepting outside payments in the mega-popular Fortnite. Both stores pulled the app, and Epic sued. Apple emerged victorious, with Fortnite only returning to the iPhone recently. Google, however, lost the case after Epic showed it worked behind the scenes to stymie the development of app stores like Epic's. Google is still working to avoid penalties in that long-running case, but Epic thought it smelled a conspiracy last year. It filed a similar lawsuit against Samsung, accusing it of implementing a feature to block third-party app stores. The issue comes down to the addition of a feature to Samsung phones called Auto Blocker, which is similar to Google's new Advanced Protection in Android 16. It protects against attacks over USB, disables link previews, and scans apps more often for malicious activity. Most importantly, it blocks app sideloading. Without sideloading, there's no way to install the Epic Games Store or any of the content inside it.
Auto Blocker is enabled by default on Samsung phones, but users can opt out during setup. Epic claimed in its suit that the sudden inclusion of this feature was a sign that Google was working with Samsung to stand in the way of alternative app stores again. Epic has apparently gotten what it wanted from Samsung -- CEO Tim Sweeney has announced that Epic is dropping the case in light of a new settlement. Sweeney said Samsung "will address Epic's concerns," without elaborating on the details. Samsung may stop making Auto Blocker the default or create a whitelist of apps, like the Epic Games Store, that can bypass Auto Blocker. Another possibility is that Epic and select third-party stores are granted special access while Auto Blocker remains on for others, balancing security and openness.
A "more interesting outcome," according to Ars, would be for Samsung to pre-install the Epic Games Store on its new phones.
Not that it matters... (Score:2)
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The Epic games store app is pretty bad, yes. On the other hand, I haven't had any DRM problems running their games on Linux using Lutris... Maybe I'm not playing new enough games to have a problem?
Little Red Hen and the Epic Smartphone that is Not (Score:2)
Epic needs to stop suing to piggy back free on the work of others. Apple, Google, and Samsung invest a lot into building great hardware, and their app stores are funding this advancement. I had a book growing up, "Little Red Hen", the other farm animals did not help the Little Red Hen plant, harvest, mill, or bake the bread, so they did not get to eat it. Epic is trying to bring some jam for the bread, and "Little Red Hen" says everyone else pays me 30% of their profits so I will sell their jam next to my b
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I applaud Epic, they are all doing us a service. Apple, Samsung, and Google are *not* using their excess profits to fund smartphone development, they are using it to pad their own bank accounts.
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Yes, yes, I have been waiting for you to snort something. See, you are the fat little short sighted pig in the book. Let us start out by pointing out your objectively verified lie:
Apple, Samsung, and Google are *not* using their excess profits to fund smartphone development
All three companies have significantly advanced the compute power and the camera quality in their devices over the last five years; creating better and better devices. They are for sure using profits to fund these developments. I would much rather the money go to these three companies than Epic any day. What has Epic produced wort
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Apple certainly does spend money on R&D. But they also pay their stockholders handsome dividends, billions per year.
https://www.macrotrends.net/st... [macrotrends.net]
You seem to think the customer in this lawsuit is the smartphone owner. It is not. Epic in this context is the customer of Apple services like App store distribution and payment processing. Epic is doing other *developers* a favor, not necessarily *phone owners*.
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Apple certainly does spend money on R&D. But they also pay their stockholders handsome dividends, billions per year.
Yes, Apple is an excellent investment. Produces fantastic hardware pushing technology forward in a valuable way, and produces a return for their investors. On the other hand Epic is a pretty much a drain on society producing no advancement in technology, and frivolous lawsuits clogging up our legal system.
You seem to think the customer in this lawsuit is the smartphone owner. It is not. Epic in this context is the customer of Apple services like App store distribution and payment processing. Epic is doing other *developers* a favor, not necessarily *phone owners*.
Yes, Epic is hurting both the customer and the other developers by throwing money to lawyers only to produce a worse situation.
Let us look at Apple's response in the EU to being forced to allow sideloading
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Woah, you really are an Apple fanboy. Bullying and extortion, of one of the largest, most valuable companies on earth! People should stop picking on the little guy like that.
The correct EU response, is to crack down harder, because Apple complied in bad faith. I hope they do.
Whole Foods is a good investment too, but that doesn't excuse price gouging.
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Woah, you really are an Apple fanboy.
Actually pretty much hate Apple for the closed garden stuff, and avoid giving them money, recommend to everyone try and go Android and Linux or Windows at least because you are more free there. But do have to give them credit where credit is due. Mostly cannot stand their operating systems, Windows 95 still has a better user interface over Mac OS, and Android is a clear winner making iOS look like a toy for babies. But damn their silicone is shiny, and those camera optics are hard to ignore, and the Vision
People complain about security all the time (Score:2)
When malicious apps make it onto the big stores, people keep demanding that the default be to not allow just anything to get installed. So, it makes sense that Google(which already has an option to allow installing from untrusted sources), and Samsung will both default to, "no, you can't just install stuff from ANYWHERE without manually turning that ability on". Epic just doesn't like that people need to turn on the ability to install their store. By saying you want to allow installing from an another