For years, developers have accepted the rules of mobile distribution as fixed: build for Apple’s App Store or stay off iOS.
But, a new partnership between Amsterdam-based Onside.io and Dubai’s Playgama suggests those rules are finally changing- and changing fast.
Within hours, Onside launched hundreds of Playgama’s HTML5 games to iOS across Europe, fully compliant with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). What once took months of negotiation, testing, and approval now happens almost in real time.
For John Snoek, COO of Onside, speed wasn’t a lucky outcome, it was a design principle.
“There’s no single silver bullet,” he explained. “Our entire organization is built around delivering quality and speed. We have infrastructure that lets us move fast, documentation that’s clear, and service departments, from compliance to moderation, that work in parallel.”
The result is a process that treats iOS not as a gated platform, but as an open distribution channel.
Playgama, which already brings together hundreds of web game developers and reaches more than 300 million monthly players, provided SDK bundles and assets. Onside handled everything else, packaging, distribution, and integration, turning what used to be an operational obstacle into a matter of hours.
Making the DMA real
Since Apple announced its DMA compliance measures, developers have questioned how much real freedom the regulation provides. Snoek’s view is that true compliance is about principles, not loopholes.
“DMA compliance means developer freedom of choice, consumer choice, and innovation,” he said. “We don’t gatekeep content. Developers can use our payment SDK or bring their own. And because we lower pricing and simplify integration, they can take more creative risks.”
In other words, Onside’s approach translates the legal framework of the DMA into an economic one, where developers can finally build and distribute on their own terms.
Beyond app stores
For Dmitry Kachmar, founder of Playgama, this partnership is about more than new markets, it’s about rewriting how games reach players.
“We believe the future of gaming lies in openness,” he said. “Developers should be able to distribute anywhere, without friction or gatekeepers. Onside makes that possible: fast, transparent, and fair.”
Playgama’s platform already connects developers to YouTube Playables, Facebook, Telegram, and Samsung through a single SDK. Adding iOS through Onside closes one of the last major gaps in the open web gaming ecosystem.
A growing circle
Onside now hosts more than 200 apps and 60,000 active users, a base that’s expanding as more developers bring their own audiences to the platform.
“We’re building both sides of the equation,” Snoek explained. “More developers attract more users, and more users attract more developers. That virtuous circle is already accelerating.”
A glimpse of the post-DMA world
For Europe’s mobile ecosystem, the Playgama-Onside collaboration offers a preview of what the post-DMA world could look like: a market defined by choice, experimentation, and fairness. Not by platform lock-in.
In this new model, innovation isn’t about who controls the store. It’s about who can move fastest, collaborate easiest, and build the most open future.
As Kachmar put it, “Together, we’re proving that mobile distribution can finally be open — and that’s good for everyone in gaming.”
Featured image: Allison Saeng via Unsplash