Fortnite is returning to mobile four years after Apple and Google pulled it from their app stores. Android users around the world can install the game, along with two new titles from publisher Epic Games, by downloading the company’s new app store.
However, only iPhone users in the EU can follow suit, as Epic becomes the highest-profile company yet to adopt the looser restrictions imposed on Apple by the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
All three games will also be available on Alt Store PAL, the largest of the independent app stores launched in the EU under Apple’s new terms, said Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games.
“We are really grateful to the European Commission for not only passing the DMA law, which allows competition between retailers, but also for stepping in and keeping Apple and Google in check to ensure they cannot simply obstruct competition,” Sweeney added.
The relaunch of Fortnite is the culmination of a years-long battle between Sweeney, who controls Epic Games with majority ownership of the company, and mobile platforms over whether the latter should be entitled to a share of revenue generated by players using their devices.
In 2020, Epic took a unilateral step: It updated Fortnite to allow users to pay for in-game items directly through the company’s servers, thereby avoiding a mandatory 30% fee for using Apple and Google’s standard payment processing. In response, both companies blocked the game from their App Stores, sparking a furious exchange of litigation.
But the relaunch wasn’t the end of Epic’s struggle, Sweeney said. Both companies still force users through “scary screens” before allowing them to install the company’s alternative App Store — it takes 15 clicks to launch the Epic Games Store on an iPhone and one to launch Apple’s store.
Epic is also aiming to make Fortnite available to UK mobile users again, after legislation similar to the EU’s DMA (the Digital Markets Competition and Consumer Act 2024) was passed in the UK in May this year.
“Unless Apple and Google can lobby the UK government to allow it to continue blocking competition, we should be able to move in that direction by the end of next year,” Sweeney said.
While Apple has been forced by regulations to relax its grip on what iPhone users can do with their devices, the company continues to tighten the screws in other areas. Patreon, a creator economy service that lets fans support individual artists, writers and musicians with monthly subscriptions, has been instructed to end a nearly decade-old exception to Apple’s 30% fee.
On Monday, Patreon informed its users: “Apple is requiring Patreon to use its in-app purchase system and remove all other billing systems from the Patreon iOS app by November 2024. Apple will apply its 30% App Store fee to all new memberships purchased in the Patreon iOS app, in addition to anything purchased from the Patreon store.”
Patreon creators (users) have the option to add 30% to their standard membership fee or absorb the loss with the 15% they already pay to Patreon itself.