Epic says Fortnite will return to iOS in the EU this year via a new Epic Games Store app

25.01.2024 - 21:45 / videogameschronicle.com / Tim Sweeney / Battle Royale / Chris Scullion / Ios / Will

Epic Games has announced that it will be bringing Fortnite back to iOS devices later this year thanks in part to a change in EU law.

In a tweet posted on the official Epic Games Newsroom account on X, the publisher said the game “will return to iOS in Europe in 2024, distributed by the upcoming Epic Games Store for iOS”.

It’s not yet clear whether this includes the UK – since the law change was an EU one and the UK is no longer part of the EU – or whether Epic plans to pay Apple the new fee it has announced for alternative app stores.

The latter seems unlikely as Epic added: “Stay tuned for details as we figure out the regulatory timeline. We’ll continue to argue to the courts and regulators that Apple is breaking the law.”

The changes are being made as a result of the Digital Markets Act, a new EU law which goes into effect in March.

However, while the law states that Apple now has to allow developers to create and offer new apps (including new stores) without using the App Store, Apple has changed its terms further to ensure it still earns money on non-App Store apps.

Apple has demanded that apps downloaded more than a million times a year must pay it €0.50 for every download over a million, meaning developers will owe Apple €500,000 / $542,000 for every million downloads after the first million.

Earlier this month it also said it would let developers take users to third-party websites to make payments (instead of directly through the App Store), but that it would charge a 27% commission on any proceeds made by these payment links.

Unless this situation changes, then, it appears that even if Epic was to release Fortnite on iOS devices through its own Epic Games Store, its popularity means it may still have to pay Apple millions of dollars under Apple’s terms.

In an earlier tweet today, before the Fortnite announcement, Epic Games CEO and co-founder Tim Sweeney said: “Apple’s plan to thwart Europe’s new Digital Markets Act law is a devious new instance of malicious compliance.

“They are forcing developers to choose between App Store exclusivity and the store terms, which will be illegal under DMA, or accept a new also-illegal anticompetitive scheme rife with new Junk Fees on downloads and new Apple taxes on payments they don’t process.”

Shortly after the Fortnite iOS announcemend was made, Sweeney also retweeted a statement by the Coalition for App Fairness, which stated that “Apple clearly has no intendion to comply with the DMA”.

“Apple is introducing new fees on direct downloads and payments they do nothing to process, which violates the law,” it claimed. “This plan does not achieve the DMA’s goal to increase competition and fairness in the digital market – it is not fair, reasonable, nor non-discriminatory.”