Apple Blocks Fortnite Return to iOS
Epic Games announced plans to return the game Fortnite to the US iOS App Store. This announcement followed a recent court decision involving Apple and Epic Games. However, the ruling did not guarantee Fortnite’s return to iPhones globally.
Epic had proposed a global agreement under which the game would return to Apple’s platform worldwide if certain conditions, described as a “friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework,” were applied globally.
Following this, Epic resubmitted Fortnite to the US App Store using a European account. Several days later, Apple rejected this submission.
Further complicating the situation, the game is also currently unavailable on alternative app marketplaces within the European Union.
Epic Games confirmed that Apple blocked the submission, preventing the game’s release on both the US App Store and the Epic Games Store for iOS in the EU. As a result, Fortnite is now offline for iOS users worldwide until Apple reverses the block.
The court decision mentioned earlier concerned Apple’s failure to allow developers to inform users about lower prices outside of their apps, a separate issue from Apple’s removal of Fortnite from the App Store years ago. That ruling did not mandate Fortnite’s return to the iPhone.
It remains unclear why the game is blocked in the EU on third-party app store alternatives following Apple’s rejection of the US App Store resubmission. Questions persist whether Apple took action to block access in the EU or if Epic Games itself removed the game from those platforms. More details are awaited on this matter.
