By: Nick Gambino
Fortnite is finally coming back to iOS, but not by winning any legal battle or making amends with Apple. No, Epic Games doesn’t seem like they are at all interested in playing nice with the company in charge of every app download on an iOS device.
Ok, so if Fortnite isn’t officially coming back to the App Store then how are you going to start playing it again on your iPhone? Well, Nvidia’s streaming service for games, GeForce Now, is listing Fortnite as a playable cloud gaming title.
This is essentially a loophole, a workaround, a big FU to Apple. All you have to do to start playing the popular FPS on your iPhone is register and join the closed beta. That’s relatively easy.
So, what of the official Fortnite app’s future in the App Store? Well, it’s important to understand how we got here to understand where we’re going. It all started in August 2020 at the height of the pandemic when many of us were home twiddling our thumbs or wearing them out gaming on our favorite mobile or console device.
Epic Games picked a fight with the giant known as Apple by attempting, or rather succeeding, in not paying the 30% commission due on in-app purchases by any app downloaded from the App Store.
Apple responded to this blasphemous affront by doing what they were totally within their right to do – kick Fortnite out of their store. That means millions of iOS Fortnite players were cut off at the snap of a finger.
Epic Games went all in, suing Apple, claiming that the company is a monopoly and guilty of violating antitrust laws. Epic lost on that front, but the courts did rule that the tech giant can’t stop any app developers from including links for payments outside of the sphere of the App Store.
Fast forward to today and the whole thing is in the appeals court with both battling it out in the hopes of winning outright and stomping out their opponent. It’s messy and doesn’t look like it’s going to resolve amicably anytime soon.
In the meantime, you can play Fortnite on your iOS device by registering for the beta test through GeForce Now. That should hold you over while the giants have their war.
