Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney has announced that the company will submit Fortnite to the iOS App Store in the U.S. next week. The move follows a court decision that ruled against Apple’s App Store practices. However, Fortnite’s return isn’t a sure thing yet…
“We will return Fortnite to the US iOS App Store next week,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney announced, adding that Epic is prepared to end all legal battles with Apple over App Store policies.
“Epic puts forth a peace proposal,” Sweeney wrote on social media. “If Apple extends the court’s friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we’ll bring Fortnite back to the App Store globally and drop all current and future litigation on the matter.”
Presumably, the change that Epic Games would like to see is as follows. Fortnite would not allow iPhone and iPad users to purchase V-bucks game currency through the iOS app. Instead, Epic would inform players that V-bucks can be purchased from Epic’s website. Epic could include links to its website where V-bucks could be purchased, and Apple would take no commission on the online transaction.
That sounds simple enough, but Apple has fought for years against allowing this straightforward scenario. Apple charges developers 15-30% on digital transactions within iPhone and iPad apps. In the United States, Apple doesn’t allow third party marketplaces to exist either.
Apple should allow Fortnite to work as described above in the U.S. following today’s court decision, but Sweeney puts the “worldwide” condition on the proposal.
Fortnite has been missing from the App Store since 2020 when Epic Games broke existing App Store policy by allowing players to purchase game currency without using the App Store payment system. Apple pulled Fortnite from the App Store, Epic Games sued, and now the results have arrived in the form of a substantial loss for Apple.
The game has remained playable through cloud streaming platforms like Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming via the browser, but the native Fortnite app hasn’t been available on the iPhone, iPad, or Mac for years.
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