The Ruling We’ve Been Waiting For - And What Game Makers Should Do Next
It’s official!
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.
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:
- Add buttons in your app that take players to your web shop
- Promote the existence of the web store (and the better prices it offers) in-game
- Link players directly to external payments
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.
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.
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.
That’s why we’ve spent the past 24 months building the infrastructure to support exactly this shift:
- 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
Here’s What We Recommend Game Makers Do Right Now:
- Promote your web store inside the game with messages, popups, banners and link-outs
- Set up product-specific deep links so players can tap once, land pre-authenticated on the right SKU, pay, and return to the game.
- 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!
