Although Epic Games recently fought a successful battle against Apple, Fortnite is returning to iOS after a four-year hiatus, and Epic’s own App Store is also available in the EU, but the company isn’t happy about it. The studio, which campaigns for free choice, alternative payment methods, and app markets, is now criticizing Samsung’s practices and has (temporarily) suspended Fortnite’s availability on the Galaxy Store in protest, after the South Korean manufacturer announced more aggressive measures to limit sideloading.
With the Samsung One UI 6.1.1 update, the built-in Auto Blocker feature not only blocks malware and other malicious programs, but also prevents apps downloaded from unofficial app stores or from unknown sources from running. The tweak was discovered by Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 owners, and it appears that Auto Blocker, which is enabled by default, must be manually disabled for apps to be usable. The change does not affect previous versions, eg. devices running One UI 6.0.
According to Epic Games, this practice is anti-competitive, as turning off Auto Blocker as a security upgrade exposes devices to greater risk and presents users with a choice: they either have to opt for stronger protection or use sideloaded apps. With this move, Samsung is also clearly trying to steer users towards its own Galaxy Store and the established Google Play Store.
In protest, the studio is removing Fortnite from the Samsung Store, and instead plans to support independent marketplaces in the future, such as AltStore, as well as its own Epic Games Store, which will be available this year. It’s worth looking at the situation with double standards: in this case, Epic believes that sideloading is the best option and is pushing users to alternative stores, so its approach can’t be said to be entirely different from Samsung’s.
