Epic Games says Fortnite is now unavailable on iPhones and iPads globally because Apple blocked a bid to release the popular video game in the App Store in the US and Europe.
“Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we cannot release to the US App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union,” the X account for Fortnite posted early Friday – claiming that Apple’s move would now prevent the game’s iOS availability around the world.
“Sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it,” Fortnite said.
In a statement sent to the Associated Press, Apple said it had specifically asked Epic Sweden to resubmit the app update “without including the US storefront of the App Store so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies”. But, the company added, it “did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces”.
Fortnite’s exile from the iPhone app store is the latest twist in a years-long feud between Apple and Epic. Back in 2020, the video game maker filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in the US, alleging the technology trendsetter was illegally using its power to gouge game makers.
After a month-long trial in 2021, district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled against most of Epic’s claims, but ordered Apple to loosen its previously exclusive control over the payments made for in-app commerce and allow links to alternative options in the US for the first time – threatening to undercut sizeable commissions that Apple had been collecting from in-app transactions for more than a decade.
After exhausting an appeal that went all the way to the US supreme court, Apple last year introduced a new system that opened the door for links to alternative payment options while still imposing a 27% commission on in-app transactions executed outside its own system.
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Epic fired back by alleging Apple was thumbing its nose at the legal system, reviving another round of court hearings that lasted nearly a year before Gonzalez Rogers delivered a stinging rebuke last month – which held Apple in civil contempt and banned the company from collecting any commission on alternative payment systems.
That ruling cleared the way for Epic to finally return to the iPhone app store in the US, a reinstatement the video game maker was anticipating before Apple’s latest move.
Fortnite’s availability in the EU, meanwhile, was set to go in an alternative store for iPhone users – now called the Epic Games Store. Apple cleared the way for it last year under new regulatory pressures.
