Anika Begay
AltStore PAL, a third-party iOS app store available in the EU, is abandoning its €1.50 (plus tax) annual subscription after receiving a “MegaGrant” from Fortnite developer Epic Games. AltStore initially charged the subscription to help cover Apple’s Core Technology Fee (CTF), which is a fee that third-party app marketplaces must pay for each annual app install.
Epic uses MegaGrants as a way to “sponsor the development of exciting projects that might otherwise not have the funding to fully realize,” the company says. The grants are typically for smaller teams that use Epic’s technologies to “bring bold, inspiring, and insanely creative dreams to life,” but in this case, Epic awarded the grant for “innovation in app distribution,” according to AltStore.
AltStore did not disclose the dollar value of the grant, and the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Current subscribers won’t be charged when their renewal date approaches, AltStore says. The AltStore team also plans to “show our appreciation for our existing subscribers in a future update,” but didn’t specify what that might look like.
