Telefónica, one of the world's largest operators with its O2 and Movistar networks serving the UK, Spain, Germany and Latin America, will start pre-installing the Epic Games store on every new compatible Android phone it sells, including Samsung phones.
Telefonica and Epic said it was part of a "long-term collaboration" to bring the store and popular game Fortnite to "millions" of the operator's devices. This will be the first time that the Epic Games Store is pre-installed on consumer phones, and it could be the next important step in Epic's dream of challenging Google's App Store monopoly and increasing revenue sharing.
In December last year, a federal jury unanimously supported Epic Games in the Epic v. Google case, finding that Google had turned its Android app store and Google Play billing services into an illegal monopoly. Epic originally filed the lawsuit in 2020, accusing Google of "blocking" or "bribing" phone manufacturers and mobile carriers to prevent games like Fortnite and other app stores from being pre-installed on phones.
But now, about a month after Judge James Donato banned Google from further blocking or bribery, one of the world's largest carriers will begin these pre-installations, adding a full store of rival games (and possibly non-game apps in the future) in addition to Google's own app store.
Technically, Epic only launched its Epic Games Store on mobile platforms in August of this year. Until then, it wants nearly all phone manufacturers and carriers to pre-install one of several different types of Fortnite installers to bring the game to their phones. The company offered various offers to attract them, and Samsung, LG, OnePlus and Huawei initially agreed to do so.
But OnePlus only managed to do this in India, allegedly because it needed a license that Google didn't grant. (Google disputes this rationale.) LG also backed out because of its contract with Google.
Epic spokesperson Natalie Muñoz confirmed that Telefonica was not one of the carriers Google bribed, so Judge Donato's order does not imply this new possibility.
In fact, Telefónica has worked with Epic in the past. In 2020, it started letting Spanish Movistar users have their Fortnite spending charged to their phone bills. At that time, court documents showed that Telefonica was expected to receive 5% of the revenue from these "Fortnite" players. Verizon and Hutchison (Three, WindTre) got similar deals, but we don't know if they'll follow suit now.
In September this year, Epic also sued Samsung.