Tim Sweeney wants the Epic Games Store on consoles, but isn't going to sue over it

PLUS: Grand Theft Auto VI delayed to MMXXVI.

The Epic Games Store.

On Wednesday, I logged into a group media call and listened to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney rejoice over his company’s surprise court win over Apple. He spent some of that time reiterating his dismay over Apple and Android’s app store restrictions.

Sweeney is now five years into loudly objecting to the fees the world’s top phone-makers charge app developers, their restrictions on alternate payment options and their resistance to allowing competing app stores on their phones.

As he played the hits that have fueled Epic’s antitrust lawsuits against Apple and Google, I was reminded that I’ve never quite understood why Sweeney hasn’t made the same complaints about video game consoles.

Epic’s Games Store isn’t on Xbox, nor PlayStation nor Switch. And Epic’s Fortnite, which is on those platforms, doesn’t offer an alternate payment method.

So why doesn’t Epic have the same gripes with the console-makers?

Well, Sweeney told me, he’d like to open things up more on consoles: “I think the world would be a better place if consoles allowed for competing stores, but we haven't ever seen that as an antitrust dispute-worthy issue.”

For context, Sweeney’s company has committed around $1 billion in legal fees and lost revenue to get Apple and Google to open up their mobile stores. With the support of European regulators, Epic has managed to offer the Epic Games Store for phones in that region. Epic has also been pushing its store on PC for years, sparring with Valve’s Steam to build itself as an alternative. But EGS is nowhere to be found on consoles.

Here’s Sweeney’s full answer to me, which began with a dip back to eight years ago, when Epic wanted to allow cross-platform play on Fortnite against objections from Sony: