Fortnite is returning to the iPhone, almost four years after a battle between Apple and the game’s developer, Epic, saw it removed. As you can imagine, there is a catch. It can only be downloaded in one place, the EU, and its return is subject to the European Commission’s digital shopping law.
Fortnite is coming back to iPhone.
According to the DMA, Apple was supposed to allow the installation of app purchases beyond Apple’s own App Store, and on Friday, August 16, the most anticipated of these arrived in the form of the Epic Games Store.
Once you’ve downloaded the store, which is only available to those iPhone users in the EU running iOS 17.6, you’ll have access to a small number of games, including Fall Guys and — the big one — Fortnite. Epic says the number of games will increase.
The history of the dispute between Apple and Epic is that Apple accused Epic of trying to avoid paying a commission for in-app purchases and removed the game from the App Store. Fortnite is free to download and play, but has its own in-game currency that users can purchase. Exactly four years ago, in August 2020, the game could not be played on iPhone or iPad.
While it’s still available on Android devices, Android users around the world can now also choose to download from the Epic Games Store, as well as another digital storefront called AltStore Pal.
For iPhone, the Epic Games Store is the fifth alternative marketplace now available in the EU, the other three being Setapp Mobile, Aptoide (which is not yet fully launched), and Mobivention, which focuses on B2B.
The Epic Games Store is by far the largest of these. Installation is easy, if a bit of a hassle. Once you’ve chosen to download it, you need to immediately go to the Settings app and confirm that you’re happy to install games from the Epic Games Store, then go back to the Epic website and select download.
Once you do that, playing Fortnite is easy and is as smooth and beautiful as ever.
Will it lead to more countries adopting the same rules as the EU? It seems likely that the US, UK and Australia are among those watching closely to decide whether they should follow suit.
For now, users in the EU can go to Epic’s website on their iPhones and download the storefront.
While Apple has been adamantly unwilling to allow sideloading of games and is upfront in saying that the security of the user experience is central to its objections, it also doesn’t want to lose the revenue it makes from developers – which is where the dispute with the Epic in principle. Personally, I suspect that most users are happy with the convenience and reliability of having just one marketplace, the Apple App Store, on their iPhones. But this could be a turning point for iPhone users in the EU.
