Fortnite will return to the US iOS app store and iPhones next week after a critical court ruling, said the epic bosstim Sweeney.
Yesterday, on April 30th, the US District Court in California stated that Apple told Epic Gamesv. In Apple’s case, we discovered that we intentionally violated Apple’s orders. This allows Apple to offer customers an alternative way for developers to purchase outside the app.
In a tweet, Sweeney proposed a “peace proposal” to Apple. Apple has been fighting in court for many years by Epic. “If Apple extends Apple’s frictionless, Apple-Tax-free framework around the world, we’ll bring Fortnite back to App Stores around the world and remove current and future lawsuits on the topic,” Sweeney says.
In January, Passthecontroller reported on how Sweeney spends billions of dollars on running an app store with Apple and Google. Sweeney told Passthecontroller at the time that he thought it was a long-term investment in the future of Epic and Fortnite, and insisted that the epic could continue fighting for decades to come.
The ongoing battle for Sweeney to get Fortnite back on IPHONE and Android phones is well documented, avoiding store fees. This is the GIST. Epic doesn’t want to pay the current standard 30% store fee for revenue made on mobile games. Instead, they want to run something like Fortnite through their own mobile store, The Epic Games Store, without Apple and Google getting in the way and making a profit. Back in 2020, the dispute ended with Fortnite, which blocked releases on iOS.
Now, in the US, Fortnite is set to finally return, almost five years later.
In another tweet, Sweeney welcomed the court’s ruling.
“Apple’s 15-30% junk rates are just as dead in the United States as they are in Europe under the Digital Markets Act. They’re illegal here, and illegal.”
Apple is now referred to federal prosecutors for violating a US court order. “Continued attempts to block Apple’s competition are not tolerated,” said U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. “This is an injunction, not negotiation. If the party knowingly ignores the court’s order, there is no solution.”
Gonzalez Rogers introduced Apple and one of its executives, Vice President of Treasury, Alex Roman, to federal prosecutors for a criminally contemptious investigation into the conduct of the case. Roman testified about the measures Apple took to comply with her injunction “full of misdirection and complete lies,” the judge wrote.
“We strongly oppose the decision. We will comply with the court’s orders and appeal,” Apple said in a statement.
After multiple costly legal battles, the epic has now made great strides. Prior to this point, its victory was largely limited to Europe through the regional digital market laws.
Last August, the Epic Games store was launched on Android devices worldwide along with iPhones from the European Union and Fortnite, Rocket League Sideswipe and Fall Guys for Mobile. But in reality, it’s a nightmare to have something like Fortnite running on mobile, and according to Epic, various “terror screens” are turning off 50% of users.
Throughout its spending, Epic has suffered considerable layoffs. In September 2023, 830 employees, or about 16% of the workforce, were lost in a North Carolina studio. Last October, Sweeney argued that the company is now “financially sound.” Both Fortnite and the Epic Games store have hit new records with “Concurrency and Success.”
Photographer: Andrew Haller/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
Wesley is the UK news editor at Passthecontroller. Find him on @wyp100’s Twitter. You can contact Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
