Back in September of 2023, the European Union officially designated Apple a “gatekeeper” under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), stipulating that it must open its App Store on iOS in a number of ways, including adding the ability to “side-load” apps from the web rather than the store, to have other storefronts available, and more.
If you’ve been even vaguely following the issue, you’ll know this is all of particular interest to Epic Games – in fact much of it is being driven by Epic Games’ complaints, going back to its in-game “Free Fortnite” campaign after Epic intentionally broke Apple’s rules to get Fortnite kicked off the platform. In the years since, Epic’s founder and CEO Tim Sweeney has continued to be vocal on the topic. Responding to a Tweet that suggested it took 15 steps to side-load an app under Apple’s proposed, post-DMA solution, Sweeney called it “the worst app installation experience in the history of computing!”, an “abomination” and an example of “malicious compliance” of the ruling.
https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/1767635662902272452
