The Ruling We’ve Been Waiting For - And What Game Makers Should Do Next

It’s official! 

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Mobile game developers can now link out from their games to web stores and process payments - thanks to a major new Epic Games VS Apple ruling the U.S. District Courts issued on April 30, 2025.

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Effective immediately, mobile game developers can link U.S players directly from the game to web stores, and let players complete purchases outside Apple’s payment system.

This isn’t a vague loophole, it’s a clear green light to:

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- Add buttons in your app that take players to your web shop

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- Promote the existence of the web store (and the better prices it offers) in-game

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- Link players directly to external payments

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Developers Across The Industry Are Adapting 

The recent court ruling lets developers build new DTC strategies without fear of rejection, obfuscation, or policy whiplash - and many are already moving fast. Spotify, for example, announced a new version of its iOS app for U.S. users that leverages the updated guidelines to introduce more transparency, more control, and more choice. 

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Players can now view pricing, understand different subscription options, and follow direct links out to Spotify’s own web checkout. It’s a clear sign - the industry is embracing this shift, and the companies that act early are setting the tone for what user-first monetization looks like in a post-ruling world.

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Everything You Need - Already Live

We’ve been eagerly anticipating this ruling and regulation changes. We always believed it was a matter of when, not if. 

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That’s why we’ve spent the past 24 months building the infrastructure to support exactly this shift:

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• Mobile-first merchant of record with deep gaming focus - supporting 100 currencies, 500+ payment methods, and already processing over $500M/year in DTC transactions
  
  
• Checkout links that send players to purchase specific offers or SKUs from inside the app
  
  
• Hosted web stores and secure checkout pages optimized for conversion
  
  
• Industry-leading login methods for frictionless web-to-app player flows
  
  
• Advanced payment SDKs for both web and iOS, giving developers full control over the checkout experience

• Fully customized checkout page

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Here’s What We Recommend Game Makers Do Right Now:

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1. Promote your web store inside the game with messages, popups, banners and link-outs
   
   
2. Set up product-specific deep links so players can tap once, land pre-authenticated on the right SKU, pay, and return to the game.
   
   
3. Experiment with accepting payments in iOS games with Appcharge Payment Links - sending players to a web-payment session (one tap to pay), replacing regular Apple IAP flows. Review the docs to get started today

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If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to go all-in on DTC, this is it.

Let’s move!