The Epic Games Store will be pre-installed on compatible Android phones on the Telefónica network in Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico and all Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, as part of a new partnership between the service provider and Epic Games.

Lorena Senador-Gómez, Director of Partnerships and Devices at Telefónica, commented: “With this collaboration with Epic Games, we strengthen our relationship and go one step further in providing high-quality, accessible and innovative digital experiences for our customers.”

Michael Modon, senior director of growth partnerships at Epic Games, said: “Thanks to our partnership with Telefonica, players can now access the Epic Games Store and Fortnite directly on their Android devices.” We look forward to expanding our collaboration with Telefonica to to offer players even more advantages.”

As is well known, Epic Games has been arguing with Google and Apple for several years over opening their ecosystems to third-party stores and payment processing. Legal efforts in this direction have borne some fruit, but the real breakthrough for Epic came this year in the form of regulation by the European Union – which Apple nevertheless tried to block.

A statement from Epic Games on social media couldn’t resist throwing some shade at Google in relation to this new partnership.

“The Epic Games Store will now be pre-installed on Telefónica Android devices in Spain, the UK, Germany, Mexico and Spanish-speaking Latin America,” the post reads. “This will allow players to bypass many of Google’s misleading fear screens and start playing Fortnite more quickly. We are looking to partner with other carriers as we continue to fight to open the mobile ecosystem to competition.”

Tim Sweeney’s big dream of making the Epic Games Store an integral part of as many devices as possible took a big step forward today.