Epic Games celebrates victory over Apple — Fortnite has reappeared in the US App Store after a five-year hiatus.
The action game disappeared from the page back in 2020when the company violated Apple’s rules. Epic Games added its own payment system with a 20% discount — without the participation of the platform. This step turned into a five-year conflict between the two giants. As a result, Fortnite developers accused the App Store policy of monopoly, which does not give developers flexibility in working with payments.
The court partially upheld Epic Games in 2021: Apple is obliged to allow developers to specify external payment methods in applications. But as we can see, the giant «forgot» to execute the decision, although before him There were even complaints from the European Commission. On the one hand, the company allowed adding external links, but on the other hand — it still charged a commission of 12-27% even from payments that passed by the App Store.
Two years later, the head of Epic Games Tim Sweeney talks about Fortnite returning to iOS in 2023. In August 2024, Epic Games Store was preparing to win: the platform became available for iOS and Android mobile devices. But the final victory came in May 2025, when Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers took notice of the situation. The judge called it a «willful infringement» and ordered Apple to immediately unblock the direct payment option.
This was the finish line. Epic immediately submitted Fortnite for re-inspection to the US App Store. Apple again delayed its decision, but under pressure from the court, it eventually allowed the game to return. Gonzalez Rogers gave an ultimatum: Apple must either approve the application or prove its legal grounds for blocking it. This did not happen — and Fortnite was returned.
But Fortnite didn’t just appear on the platform — it showed that Apple won’t be able to «swing» rights as much now. The updated version of the action game in the App Store includes the same direct payment option with 20% cashback for users who choose to buy items directly from Epic. So, after all, Epic Games has won its right to bypass Apple’s internal system, albeit after five years.
Fortnite has already appeared in the American App Store, as well as in the European Epic Games Store and AltStore. The company says that the game will also appear in the US App Store search results in the near future. For now, Fortnite is officially back — at least in the US and EU.
The court’s decision and Apple’s finally fulfillment of the conditions could be the beginning of a new era in mobile game distribution on its platforms. I wonder if this will turn into a trend to avoid the commission?
Source: TechCrunch
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