Fortnite is coming back to iPhone, but only in Europe

On the other hand: this is only happening in one part of the world, and Epic has lost a lot of money in the meantime – both in legal fees and lost revenue when its games disappeared from phones.

All of this underscores how difficult it is for app makers to challenge the power Apple has over what happens to the devices it sells.

We’ll discuss that in a minute. But first an explanation of what’s happening on Friday: People using iPhones, iPads, and Android devices will now be able to download Fornite, as well as other Epic-owned games, without going through the Apple or Google app stores . Instead, they can download Epic’s own app store to their devices, via the web, and download the games that way.

And if players want to spend money on those games — to buy digital items like cool outfits for their characters — Epic will keep 100 percent of the dollars players spend, instead of giving Apple and Google up to 30 percent of each transaction . Epic also makes its games available through Altstore, a third-party app store that should also be a solution to Apple’s App Store.

Here’s how we got here: In 2020, Epic intentionally challenged Apple as part of a fight over Apple’s App Store fees and policies. Epic hoped that battle would culminate in a US court victory that would give Epic and any other developer the right to load their apps onto Apple devices without going through the App Store – or at least, without paying Apple a discount of up to 30% whenever a consumer bought something from Epic.

But Epic lost most of that legal battle, which is why you still can’t play most of its games on iPhones in the US. Earlier this year, however, European regulators forced Apple to set up shop there, and Apple reluctantly agreed. .

And even that victory, Epic claims, was marred by what it describes as “malicious compliance” on Apple’s part. That’s the term Epic CEO Tim Sweeney uses to describe a series of announcements and implementation decisions that he says have hampered the actual launch of Epic’s game store and added friction to any attempt to make consumers to use Epic games.

For example: Epic says consumers trying to download Fortnite through its app store will encounter “scare screens” like this one from Apple, which it says are designed to convince consumers that downloading something that doesn’t come from the Apple App Store could be a problem. problem.

Apple, for its part, says it’s just following orders from regulators. “(The new European law) required us to enable new capabilities for EU developers, and we’ve worked to make them as easy as possible for users, while also trying to protect their privacy and security,” the company says via email.

The only thing that’s really clear about Friday’s news is that this fight will continue for some time: There are a few companies, like Epic and Spotify, that have the resources and incentives to really enforce Apple’s App Store policies, and it seems that they have found some sympathetic ears from regulators around the world.

But those App Store policies generate an enormous amount of money for Apple, and that money is more valuable than ever as Apple’s core iPhone business slows. So Apple has made it clear that it will move as slowly as possible on these things.