Epic reaches mystery settlement with Samsung days before new Galaxy phones

Last September, after successfully suing Google for running an illegal app store monopoly, Epic Games sued Samsung, too — alleging the phonemaker of illegally conspiring with Google to undermine third-party app stores. An “Auto Blocker” feature on Samsung Android phones, which was turned on by default, automatically kept users from installing apps from stores that haven’t been authorized by Samsung, such as Epic’s mobile store. Now, two days before Samsung is due to announce new phones at its Samsung Unpacked event, Epic has dropped all its claims against Samsung, saying it’s reached a settlement. Epic isn’t providing any details, though. Our only hint is from Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, on X, saying Epic won some sort of assurance from Samsung in exchange for dropping its claims. “We’re dismissing our court case against Samsung following the parties’ discussions. We are grateful that Samsung will address Epic’s concerns,” he writes. But Epic isn’t saying how Samsung might address its original concerns. Last September, Sweeney explicitly laid out two ways that Samsung could do that: either 1) change Auto Blocker so it’s off by default, or 2) create “an honest whitelisting process” that automatically lets honest apps through Samsung’s barrier. Epic would not confirm that Samsung has agreed to either of those things when we asked today. “Nothing more to share beyond the filing/X post,” Epic senior comms director Elka Looks tells The Verge. Samsung didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Given how Samsung’s Unpacked event is coming up in two days, I have to wonder if the other shoe will drop during Samsung’s presentation. Will Samsung pre-load the Epic Games Store on its phones, perhaps? But that shouldn’t satisfy Sweeney, who’s repeatedly said he fights these lawsuits on behalf of all developers and not just his own store. “If we’d fought Epic v. Apple and Epic v. Google solely on the basis of Epic getting special privileges, perhaps settlement discussions with Apple and Google might have been fruitful,” Sweeney told me last September, when I asked why he didn’t just ask Samsung to make the Epic Games Store an authorized source. “[I]f we did that, we’d be selling out all developers,” he said. While Epic has dropped its claims against Samsung today, it hasn’t technically dropped the lawsuit, which was filed against both Samsung and Google to start. The claims against Google will continue, at least for the moment: they are counts 8, 10, and 12 in a brand new First Amended Complaint that I’ve embedded below. Epic’s main antitrust lawsuit against Google also continues. Though Epic won a unanimous jury verdict in district court, the judge pressed pause on all but one specific piece of his ruling while Google appeals. (We’re waiting for a decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals now.) Meanwhile, Epic has started to get the Epic Games Store preinstalled on more phones.