Wyatte Grantham-Philips and Michael Liedtke, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) – Fortnite says it’s not available worldwide on Apple’s iOS as the tech giant blocked bids to release popular video games for iPhone users in the US and Europe.
“Apple blocked Fortnite submissions and cannot be released to US app stores or to the European Union’s epic game store,” Fortnite, owned by Epic Games, wrote X, a platform previously known as Twitter:
“Sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline all over the world until Apple unblocks it,” Fortnite says.
In a statement sent to Apscoist Press, Apple said it specifically asked Epic Sweden to resubmit app updates without including US stores in the App Store to prevent it from affecting Fortnite in other regions. However, the company added that “did not take steps to remove the live version of Fortnite from the alternative distribution market.”
Fortnite’s asylum from the iPhone App Store is the latest twist in a long-standing feud between Apple and Epic. In 2020, video game makers filed antitrust laws against U.S. Apple, claiming that technology trendsetters were using their power illegally against game makers.
After a month’s trial in 2021, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers opposed most of Epic’s claims, but Apple loosened its previous extreme control over in-app commercial payments and ordered for the first time that it would allow links to US alternative options.
After running out of appeals it had made to the U.S. Supreme Court last year, Apple opened the door to linking to alternative payment options, while also introducing a new system that charged a 27% fee for in-app transactions performed outside its own system.
The epic was fired for claiming that Apple was squashing its nose in the legal system, reviving another round of court hearings that lasted nearly a year before Gonzalez Rogers performed a stinging b-humiliation last month.
That dominance cleared the way Epic finally returned to the US iPhone App Store. This is a comeback that video game makers had anticipated before Apple’s latest move.
Meanwhile, Fortnite availability in the EU was planned to go to an alternative store for iPhone users. It is now known as the Epic Games Store. Apple cleared this method last year under new regulatory pressures.
Liedtke reported from San Francisco.
Original release: May 16th, 2025 12:04pm EDT
