Jan 23 (Reuters) -

"Fortnite" maker Epic Games said on Thursday it will add 19

third-party games to its own marketplace app on Google's

Android globally and 16 games on Apple's ( AAPL ) iOS

in the European Union.

The videogame company had launched its mobile game store in

2024, allowing it to avoid fees imposed by conventional app

marketplaces such as Google's Play and Apple's App Store while

making in-app purchases.

Epic Games had also argued that users did not have much

choice beyond the two popular app stores for downloading gaming

applications, suppressing competition.

It will launch a program to offer free games on its mobile

store, starting with titles such as "Bloons TD 6" and "Dungeon

of the Endless: Apogee".

The company said it would temporarily cover core technology

fees, the 0.50 euros ($0.5210) charged by Apple ( AAPL ) on every app

after it crosses 1 million installs, for developers that

participate in Epic's free-games program in Europe.

"We are opening up the Epic Games Store to mobile games from

third parties, starting with a small catalog and expanding over

time to a very big catalog," CEO Tim Sweeney told reporters.

"Our aim here isn't just to launch a bunch of different

stores and different places, but to build a single

cross-platform store."

North Carolina-based Epic Games reached 29 million users for

its mobile store by end-2024, falling short of its target of 100

million users.

The company also offers a computer graphics software, called

"Unreal Engine", which is widely used by app developers to

design and develop games.

Apple ( AAPL ) had approved Epic Games' marketplace app in Europe

last year. Epic had faced off with Google and Apple ( AAPL ) over their

rules of charging up to 30% commissions on app store payments.

After getting banned for nearly four years, Epic's

"Fortnite" returned on iPhones in the European Union and Android

devices globally.

($1 = 0.9598 euros)

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru and Supantha

Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Devika Syamnath)