When Epic Games took Apple to court in one of the most high-profile tech antitrust cases in recent memory, it wasn’t just about Fortnite skins or App Store fees. Beneath the legal wrangling and courtroom theatrics was a deeper question: who really controls the economics of mobile gaming?
Now, years after the original case first gripped Silicon Valley, the dust is beginning to settle. While both sides declared partial victories, the ruling has triggered a shift in how mobile developers can operate and how they get paid.
At the heart of this shift is a deceptively simple concept: the D2C web shop. Once an afterthought, it’s now emerging as a lifeline for developers to regain control from the walled gardens of iOS and Android.
The 30% Problem
Apple’s App Store has long operated under a strict regime: any digital transaction made through an iOS app is potentially subject to a 30% commission. For years, developers had accepted this as the cost of doing business in Apple’s tightly curated ecosystem. However, for the gaming industry, that cut represents a significant dent in profits.
Tim Sweeney, Epic’s CEO, was one of the first to say the quiet part out loud. When Fortnite introduced a direct payment option in 2020, which managed to evade the cut, it was promptly removed from the App Store. Epic responded with a federal lawsuit, setting off a chain reaction that is still rippling through the video game industry.
The case was framed as a David-and-Goliath battle, although Epic was hardly a small player. Still, for the thousands of mobile game developers watching from the sidelines, the case became a proxy war over their own economic future.
Source: Xsolla
Legal victory, moral ambiguity
In 2021, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that Apple must allow developers to link to external payment methods – effectively allowing them to build their own web shops outside the App Store’s ecosystem. However, the court also upheld Apple’s right to ban Epic’s developer account and maintain control over its in-app payment system.
Both sides claimed partial wins, but for developers, one takeaway stuck out: Apple couldn’t block links to outside payment options, so long as they adhered to the company’s new guidelines.
That ruling has only recently begun to reshape the mobile gaming landscape, and a quiet revolution is now underway.
Enter the web shop
The web shop, a web-based storefront where users can purchase in-game currency or items, has existed for years. But Apple’s dominance and policies made them more of a workaround than a core business strategy.
That’s now changing. Epic, predictably, led the charge, launching its own Fortnite web shop in 2023, offering V-Bucks and cosmetics at discounted rates for users who purchase directly rather than through the App Store. In doing so, Epic laid the groundwork for a model that other developers are beginning to adopt at scale.
At the forefront of this shift is Xsolla, a global video game commerce company quietly becoming the go-to infrastructure behind many of these D2C web shops. With a suite of white-label tools explicitly tailored for developers, Xsolla enables studios to stand up secure, fully branded web stores in a matter of days – not months.
Xsolla goes beyond being a merchant of record by delivering a complete payments solution – with built-in fraud prevention, tax management, regulatory compliance, and support for over 1,000 local payment methods worldwide. For developers, this means they can tap into global audiences without building bespoke infrastructure – while still owning the player relationship and significantly improving margins.
Importantly, Xsolla’s suite of robust tools is designed with Apple’s guidelines in mind, helping developers navigate the fine print without falling foul of the rules. In recent months, studios ranging from mid-sized indies to global publishers have turned to Xsolla to power their web shops, not just to escape the usual 30% cut, but to future-proof their monetization strategies.
Source: Xsolla
What this means for the mobile gaming economy
For developers, the implications go beyond payments. Web shops enable better customer tracking, higher profit margins, and greater flexibility in pricing and bundling.
This shift could lead to a two-tier economy: casual users who make quick in-app purchases, and more engaged players who are directed to the web for “better deals”. Developers now have the opportunity to build a more direct relationship with their most loyal customers – without Apple sitting in the middle.
Over time, this may erode Apple’s grip on mobile gaming monetisation. Even if only a small fraction of users shift to web shops, the impact on a studio’s bottom line could be significant. It also provides developers with a more stable foundation to scale their business without sacrificing a third of their revenue.
A turning point, but not a free ride
Still, it would be premature to declare victory. Apple’s App Store remains the primary discovery platform for mobile games, and its in-app purchase system is deeply entrenched.
There’s also the looming spectre of further regulation. The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and ongoing scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers suggest that the Epic v. Apple case is only the beginning of a broader reckoning over platform power.
For now, Apple is complying with the letter of the ruling, if not the spirit. Links to web shops are allowed, but they’re still wrapped in restrictions that make them less than seamless.
In short, the game has been opened, but the path through it is narrow.
Source: Xsolla
A chance to rebalance the scales
The Epic v. Apple case didn’t break Apple’s App Store power over the industry, but it did crack the facade. And in that crack, opportunity has bloomed.
For mobile game developers long squeezed by platform fees and opaque rules, the rise of web shops offers something rare in the world of tech: leverage. Not complete freedom, but enough of a foothold to push back, reclaim margins, and rebuild more equitable relationships with their players.
In the coming years, success will favour the studios that embrace this hybrid approach, those that master the art of blending in-app convenience with the economic independence of the open web.
Because if the Epic case has proved anything, it’s that even in Apple’s walled garden, cracks can grow.
