Navigating payment freedom: Gaining a lead in the new app store landscape

• With more challenges on Apple and Google's dominance a new app store landscape is opening up.
• Developers and publishers must adapt new strategies from D2C stores and reward-led approaches.
• Gen-Z players expect more real-world rewards, with 70% seeking benefits from mobile games.

Ben Cousens is CSO at ZBD.

As the app store ecosystem explodes open, players have more choice than ever when it comes to where to buy games and IAP. In short, monetisation theory is changing, as players expect more meaningful rewards.

The walls of the established digital storefronts are crumbling. Dominance by the likes of Google Play and Apple’s App Store is coming to an end.

The more competitive ecosystem we’ve collectively longed for is finally here. With a rising tide of alternative storefronts and payment options underway, players are facing unprecedented freedom of choice.

With that freedom comes a challenge. In this new era, successful stores will need to draw eyes by offering more than a convenient purchase experience and competitive pricing. And that’s just as true for in-game stores, publisher webshops, and the many other models emerging.

What is going on? And what can we learn from the Epic Rewards promotion?

Free to expect more

As has been well reported, this all started when developers and publishers began to grow tired of the Apple and Google stores’ aggressive revenue cuts and stranglehold on the monetisation ecosystem.

Landmark legal cases such as Epic vs Apple drew attention to the levels of control the tech majors were enjoying, and soon after, regulation frameworks such as the Digital Markets Act and Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers bill sought to prise open the market and encourage competition. They succeeded.

The immediate impact has been a blossoming of the store landscape across the gaming medium. Numerous alternative direct-to-consumer (D2C) storefronts have emerged.

Indie developers are hosting their own webshops for IAP sales. Items are being sold directly in mobile games. Publisher platforms are now offering unique deals. Innovators are also exploring ways to integrate purchasing and in-store experiences into gameplay systems; more on that below.

Today, then, players can shop around, looking for the best deals. As a result, more has to be done to secure sales. Following its court victories, Epic is now free to sell the mobile iterations Fortnite, Fall Guys, and more.

More significantly, the Unreal Engine outfit is also able to sell in-game items within those titles, direct to consumers, sidestepping revenue share while maintaining a more direct relationship with their player base. But when the vast majority of players won’t be thinking about revenue share, how can Epic attract them to buy direct?

The answer is, quite simply, the Epic Rewards programme, which offers players a 20% return on all purchases. That reward can only be spent directly in the Epic ecosystem, but that is just enough to tempt players.

Instead of giving Apple or Google 30%, Epic gives players 20% of their spend back. Would the firm prefer to give no rewards? That’s very likely. But the promotion shows what is now required to secure sales when players have payment freedom.

A rewarding future

Epic’s rewards programme isn’t just a powerful means to generate loyalty and monetise; it understands a new psychology emerging everywhere items are sold, from the high street to the in-game purchase. More consumers than ever now expect to be rewarded for purchases and loyalty.

If we look at Gen-Z, presently the most sizable and richest demographic there is, we can begin to understand what is happening. As we found when surveying 2,000 Gen-Z mobile gamers earlier this year, 86% perceive cashback and loyalty rewards to be highly motivating and important. 70% meanwhile, now expect to earn real-world rewards from mobile games.

Clearly, as those with games and items to sell look for ways to attract the largest audiences, rewards offer a powerful, appealing way to convert freedom of choice into being chosen. And rewards can come in many forms.

Epic has built a closed rewards system to generate loyalty. Others might choose to give rewards with in-game value; perhaps in the form of in-game currency. Some developers are experimenting with Bitcoin-based rewards to lift UA, engagement, retention, and spend from high-value players. Elsewhere programmable payments are presenting a fascinating option.

Programmable payments allow developers to embed payments and rewards directly into gameplay, scripting transactions into the game world itself. Rather than routing players through external storefronts or static menus, purchases and payouts can become part of the player’s journey. 

We expect to see a great many more innovative instances emerge, where purchasing, rewards and gameplay are deeply entwined. That cute little shop in the village hub of your favourite hypothetical cosy farming sim might soon function as a place to grab some IAP. A boss fight might unlock the chance to buy exclusive cosmetics. A seasonal event could grant cashback or crypto for participating in limited-time purchases.

With programmable payments, developers are no longer just selling to players – they're designing entire in-game economies where purchases and progression feel naturally integrated. And with that level of immersion, rewards can become even more impactful: tied to player achievements, in-game milestones, or creative gameplay moments.

Reaping the rewards

One thing is certain. Apple and Google’s grip has loosened. As a result, player purchasing freedom is now a key consideration when developing your monetisation strategy, which might include building your own store, expanding to D2C offerings, or even adopting programmable payments.

Across all those options and more, rewards and loyalty schemes are likely to become a leading way to secure sales. There’s never been a better time to start exploring the options open to you, and experiment with the possibilities.