Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, has revealed in a tweet that the popular game Fortnite will return to iOS, the iPhone’s operating system, this year. Apple banned the game two and a half years ago because Epic would not comply with the rules of the App Store.
Since then, both companies have been embroiled in a hefty lawsuit.
“Next year on iOS,” it said in Sweeney’s New Year’s tweet, accompanied by an image of a Fortnite character. However, the chance is small that this will happen via the classic App Store route because the argument between Apple and Epic Games has now flared up too much for that. So instead, the CEO of the games company is likely alluding to the arrival of iOS 17 sometime at the beginning of the fall.
In the next version of its mobile operating system, Apple should clear the way for alternative app stores and sideload outside the official App Store. This is laid down in the Digital Markets Act (DMA), approved by the European Parliament last year, an essential piece of legislation that limits the power of large technology companies. So, in theory, Fortnite may be able to return to iOS, albeit not via the App Store but via a backdoor.
The ongoing feud between Apple and Epic Games revolves around a payment system. Epic, which earns billions annually from in-game purchases within the popular Fortnite universe, rolled out a coin system in its mobile apps in 2020. This allowed it to avoid the famous commission to Apple (thirty percent of all payments for and in apps on iOS go to Apple). Unfortunately, that’s against the rules, so the game was kicked out of the App Store.
