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Nearly five years ago, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store after Epic Games integrated its own payment system within the game, breaching Apple’s guidelines. However, a significant court decision in Epic Games v. Apple mandated Apple not to extract fees from purchases made outside of apps, allowing the game to return to US iPhones.
After the court’s announcement, Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney expressed intentions to reinstate Fortnite on iOS in the US. He offered a “peace proposal,” stating, “If Apple implements the court’s ruling globally, eliminating the Apple-tax barrier, we’ll restore Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and cease all ongoing and future litigation on the matter.”
Last week, Epic indicated that Apple had obstructed Fortnite’s return to the App Store, and the game became inaccessible on other EU alternative platforms. Nevertheless, Apple clarified that it had requested Epic Sweden to resubmit the app update, excluding the US App Store version to avoid affecting Fortnite elsewhere, and asserted, “we did not initiate any action to remove the active version of Fortnite from alternative distribution channels.”
Epic asked the judge in the Epic v. Apple case to order Apple to review its Fortnite submission on May 16th. Yesterday, the judge said in a filing that Apple is “fully capable of resolving this issue without further briefing or a hearing,” and that if a resolution wasn’t reached, the Apple official who “is personally responsible for ensuring compliance” would have to appear at a hearing next Tuesday.
However, shortly after Fortnite returned to the App Store on Tuesday, Epic and Apple filed a joint notice saying that they have “resolved all issues” from Epic’s May 16th filing. Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Epic also recently rolled out a new promotion to encourage players to use its payment systems: if you use Epic’s system in Fortnite, Rocket League, or Fall Guys on PC, iOS, Android, and the web, the company will give you 20 percent back in Epic Rewards that can be used for other purchases in its games or on the Epic Games Store.
In the iOS version of Fortnite that was released on Tuesday, the app shows you that 20 percent bonus when you pick which payment system you want to use to buy V-Bucks.
If you get the app from the App Store, it will be a small initial download, and after you actually open the app, it will download the rest of the game. For a colleague, that additional download was 12.95GB.
Update, May 20th: Added details of Epic and Apple’s joint notice.
