Fortnite Returns to Apple App Store Worldwide Ahead of Epic's Legal 'Final Battle'

The years-long legal battle between Epic Games and Apple heads toward its "final battle" according to Epic, touting the coming conflict as such as it re-released Fortnite onto iOS nearly worldwide. Key word there is nearly: the game is not yet back on the Australian App Store despite Epic having won its case there, so Epic is waiting for the Court to enforce terms on Apple in that region. Even so, it's an interesting coincidence for Epic to be declaring Fortnite's final battle during a major Overwatch crossover event, one that almost implies even Blizzard's characters are joining the fight against Apple, at least until the event ends on June 4th.


Fortunately for Fortnite players on other platforms, the conflict has largely been resolved. Fortnite makes no effort to be on anything but Epic Games Store on PC, and consoles have no choice of app store (yet.)  Not only is Fortnite freely available on Google’s Play Store, but the court case even revealed that at some point, Google and Epic participated in a secret $800 million USD pact. While Fortnite's return to Apple's App Store has been the most-delayed, EU users who are allowed to freely install other app stores on iOS were also already playing the game before this turn of events.

But now, Epic and Apple are entering the final phase of their prolonged conflict. The return of Fortnite to the App Store is blatantly intended as a challenge following Apple telling the US Supreme Court that regulators around the world are monitoring the case to determine Apple's commission rates outside of the United States. With Fortnite on the App Store, Apple will be forced to "show its costs," and Epic believes this move will compel international regulators to permanently kill "the Apple Tax" attached to all App Store transactions.

Only time will tell how this actually plays out, but Epic actually does seem to be in a good position here, based on its current victories against Apple in courts around the world. The idea that Apple may actually be served a coup de grace on its own territory is somewhat tantalizing, but could be a bittersweet victory when one considers the mass layoffs done by Epic to make protracted legal battles like this possible.