Video Games

Epic Games Store will be pre-installed on Telefónica phones running Android

Tim Sweeney’s dream is coming closer to reality

Marco Wutz

Epic Games

The Epic Games Store will come pre-installed on compatible Android phones from the Telefónica network in Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, and all Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America as part of a new partnership between the service provider and Epic Games.

Telefonica’s director of partnerships and devices, Lorena Senador-Gómez, commented: “With this collaboration with Epic Games we strengthen our relationship and go one step further in delivering high-quality, accessible and innovative digital experiences to our customers.”

Michael Modon, the senior director of growth partnerships for Epic Games, said: “Thanks to our partnership with Telefonica, players will now be able to access the Epic Games Store and Fortnite directly on their Android devices. We look forward to expanding our collaboration with Telefonica to bring even more benefits to players.”

Epic Games, famously, has been in a spat with Google and Apple for several years at this point in regards to opening up their ecosystems to third-party stores and payment processing. Legal efforts in this direction have partly borne fruit, though the real breakthrough for Epic came in the form of regulation from the European Union this year – which Apple still tried to block.

A statement from Epic Games on social media could not resist throwing some shade at Google in the context of this new partnership. 

“The Epic Games Store will now be preinstalled on Telefónica Android devices in Spain, UK, Germany, Mexico and Spanish-speaking Latam,” the post says. “This will enable players to bypass many of Google’s misleading scare screens and get to playing Fortnite faster. We’re looking to partner with other carriers as we continue to fight to open up the mobile ecosystem to competition.”

Tim Sweeney’s grand dream of making the Epic Games Store a staple on as many devices as possible has taken a great step forward today.

Published |Modified
Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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