Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
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Title: 'Fortnite' is offline on iOS around the world

Date: Fri, 16 May 2025 13:15:35 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/fortnite-is-o...

After winning a court case pretty decisively against Apple, developer Epic
submitted Fortnite to the US App Store and suggested it would soon be back on
iOS. However, according to the Fortnite team, Apple has blocked the game on
both the US App Store and the EU's iOS version of its own Epic Games Store.

Fortnite had been available on iPhones in Europe since August last year due
to EU rules that allow third-party iOS stores.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney suggested that Apple didn't have any particular reason
to refuse the application. "AppleΓÇÖs App Review team should be free to
review all submitted apps promptly and accept or reject according to the
plain language of their guidelines," he tweeted. "App Review shouldnΓÇÖt be
weaponized by senior management as a tool to delay or obstruct competition,
due process, or free speech." Apple has yet to comment on the matter.

To recap: this entire kerfuffle between Apple and Epic has been over,
essentially, rent-seeking, and who gets to profit from it. Apple thinks it
should keep getting a cut of sales through its App Store; Epic, naturally,
would like to keep lining its own pockets. This fight initially opened up the
option for developers to use third-party app stores for iOS apps, though a
portion of their sales were still flowing back to Apple's coffers. The most
recent court ruling attempted to close that apparent loophole.

The latest Fortnite version submitted by Epic included payment systems for
Apple along with external payment via Epic's own store. Fortnite was
originally banned from the App Store in 2020 after it submitted a version
that included an external payment system that violated Apple's rules at the
time ΓÇö a decision subsequently backed by a court decision in 2021. To that
end, Apple may not be legally obligated to reinstate Epic, despite the fact
that the rule originally broken by the developer no longer existed.

This fight is, of course, ongoing. Apple appealed the most recent ruling and
asked the court to halt App Store changes until a final decision is made.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/fortnite-is-o...
131535163.html?src=rss

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