Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
United Kingdom

UK is Lagging Behind Rest of World in Tackling Big Tech, Says Fortnite Chief (ft.com) 69

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney told the Financial Times that the UK Competition and Markets Authority's December decision to delay mandating alternative app stores on iPhones was a "blunder" that leaves Britain "well behind" other jurisdictions.

The CMA postponed until next year whether to require Apple to allow third-party app stores or sideloading, unlike the EU's Digital Markets Act. Fortnite remains unavailable on UK iOS devices following Epic's years-long dispute over Apple's 30% commission fees. The regulator said it would prioritize forcing Apple and Google to allow alternative payment systems.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

UK is Lagging Behind Rest of World in Tackling Big Tech, Says Fortnite Chief More

UK is Lagging Behind Rest of World in Tackling Big Tech, Says Fortnite Chief

Comments Filter:

  • SUAFO (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bleedingobvious ( 6265230 ) on Tuesday August 19, 2025 @08:12AM (#65599338)

    Things Tim Sweeney needs to do.

    Sweeney is scum. Talking about the enemy of "BIG TECH" whilst using every filthy tactic under the sun to monetise that Fortnite noise is just.... pots and kettles levels of disengenious, self-serving, garbage from a dysfunctional man-child.

    Not even raising the brazen, scummy, tactic of bribing publishers to secure exclusive releases.

    @ Tim "The Baby" Sweeney - "You mad BRO?"

  • Speaking as a British person... (Score:4, Funny)

    by mccalli ( 323026 ) on Tuesday August 19, 2025 @08:35AM (#65599394) Homepage
    ...I thoroughly support whatever measure is necessary to keep Tim flaming Sweeney comically going "whaaaaahhhhhh!!!" every two weeks. Why people are taking this self-interested hustler seriously beats me.

    • Every so often he is right. It's hard to decide which turd sandwich on this menu is the least shitty.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mccalli ( 323026 )
        Thing is - this kind of behaviour is what I want to avoid by buying iOS. If I wanted multiple stores - well that capability already exists, I buy Android. There's no monopoly, I can buy an Android device tomorrow. I can buy one right now online.

        The argument is made that if alt stores become available then it's a user choice as to whether to install them or not - no-one's forcing me to and I could just stick with Apple's. Well, this behaviour from Sweeney is exactly the counter-argument - the moment alt s

        • Thing is - this kind of behaviour is what I want to avoid by buying iOS. If I wanted multiple stores - well that capability already exists, I buy Android.

          You actually anticipated the counterargument, but then you created a bullshit counterargument of your own:

          The argument is made that if alt stores become available then it's a user choice as to whether to install them or not - no-one's forcing me to and I could just stick with Apple's. Well, this behaviour from Sweeney is exactly the counter-argument - the moment alt stores become possible, every corporate exec and their dog will immediately insist on their apps only being available via their store, with none of the same rules as the main one.

          But there is an obvious counterexample:

          I can buy an Android device tomorrow. I can buy one right now online.

          Yes, and on Android, you can get the apps you want from the Play Store, even though Android allows third party app stores and allows them to do all of the same things the Play Store does (and has since Android 12.).

          You also shit out this worthless canard:

          There's no monopoly

          Antitrust is about more than monopoly. By stating that "there's no monopoly" as if it were relevant, you have pr

  • "The regulator said it would prioritize"

    If its anything like our other regulators in the UK then that means they might have agreed to a time for the meeting to discuss in about 2 years. At which point a number of the higher level execs realise that if they push it they might not get a cushy non-exec directorship in one of the companies they're regulating when they leave and so nothing is done. See: Ofcom, Ofwat.

  • Come the f- on Sweeny. Your "big tech" firm's beef with another "big tech" firm just isn't that important.

  • Tim Sweeney embraced a crusade for both Google and Apple to give the world access to their app stores for free. Yet, he charges 12% for every developer to put things on his Epic store (after the developer made its first USD1M).

    Part of the success modern mobile devices is their app store ecosystem. Before that, Java based apps were rare and scarce, mostly offered by the carrier or the managed service (such as Blackberry Enterprise users). When the first iPhone came, right on its heels came George Hotz, the I

    • WTH comment section?!

    • Tim Sweeney embraced a crusade for both Google and Apple to give the world access to their app stores for free.

      You are either lying about this, or just incapable of understanding anything about the situation, which would explain why you want to be deprived of choice.

      What Tim wanted was either access to the app stores for free, or the ability to get his apps to devices without it. As anything else is obviously anticompetitive, this is the only view consistent with the law. Apple getting to charge fees by depriving users of choice is obviously anticompetitive and only the kind of people confused by multiple mouse butt

  • But their quota on... (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Machete slayings, honor killings, grooming of minors, rape, pedophilia, mob beatings, sharia law, and locking people up for complaining about it... IS FUCKING ON POINT! ;-D

    • They would probably have a lot less of some of that stuff if the population had guns.

    • Itâ(TM)s ok - we are a lot safer in the UK than you are in the US, assuming thatâ(TM)s where you are with that Fox âNewsâ(TM) propaganda nonsense.

      • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

        by Seven Spirals ( 4924941 )
        He might be an inarticulate AC, but he's not wrong. In case you didn't know, America, at it's best, isn't built around the need of sheeple for safety. It's best form is built around freedom. The UK has clearly lost freedom of speech, mostly lost body autonomy, and they are also working on your freedom of movement. As you continue with massive Arab and African immigration and pack in new islamic newcomers, you'll find it'll turn to conflict in the streets and at the ballot box. Multiculturalism doesn't work.

        • You guys aren’t even pretending anymore. Why does right wing extremism always end up with people in camps?

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by backslashdot ( 95548 )

            It amazes me that people who proclaim themselves as of the superior race,'s solution to everything is genocide and murder. At that point you have to ask what quality makes themselves superior, it isn't ethics. Likely not intelligence either.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Xarius ( 691264 )

          While I agree the UK has become a rich-cunt-captured shithole over the past 40 years, thanks to right-wing neoliberal crap (imported from the USA) your argument is a bit disingenuous by talking about "America at its best" and the UK as it is now. The UK at its best was building the NHS and millions of affordable houses whilst the US was segregating water fountains and buses--as just one example :)

          America hasn't been at its best for longer than the UK, and is arguably descending into shithole-hood at a compe

  • Apparently this guy thinks the key to everything is more regulation. He may have a well behind, but the UK is getting their butts kicked.

  • Hey, open your own App Store !

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Hey, open your own App Store !

      He tried... They offered tons of free games and still everyone is buying from Steam instead. All the exclusives went to steam and companies learned that being Epic exclusive was a good way to lose sales (and money).

  • So a tech nobody from a single games company talks to an elitist newspaper about concerns that only a financial bull would care about simply because he thinks that everyone on blighty is for some reason using an iphone.

    Well I'm on android and I dont care what happens to the iphone users and their game choices.

Slashdot Top Deals

A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two. -- Seneca

Close