Fortnite down on iOS worldwide — live updates on the Epic game

What is happening?

A few weeks back, Apple suffered a major loss in court. A judge ruled that Apple had ignored an earlier injunction from 2021, relating to off-app payments, and essentially told Apple to cut out the games and do as it was told. Apple said it would comply, but is now appealing the decision.

As part of the new ruling, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney revealed that Fortnite would be returning to the App Store in the U.S. Now, though, he’s said that the game is in limbo because Apple has “neither accepted nor rejected” the version submitted for review.

We haven’t heard anything from Apple about why Fortnite has been blocked in the U.S. and the EU on the Epic Games Store. Nor why there was radio silence about the review process over the past week.

But considering Apple’s turbulent history with Epic and Fortnite, it’s probably unsurprising that the legal situation isn’t being wrapped up so quickly. We have contacted Apple for comment and will update this story when we hear back.

Apple and Fortnite’s history

Fortnite is why Apple ended up with this court ruling in the first place. Unhappy with the way Apple was handling App Store transactions, specifically the part where it takes a 30% cut of all sales, Fortnite tried to get around everything by linking off the app and letting users pay for V-Bucks on Epic’s own storefront.

This led to Fortnite being pulled from Apple’s App Store and Google Play. While sideloading on Android meant this wasn’t such a big deal, iPhone users were essentially cut off from the game — which meant Epic took the matter to court.

Apple was handed an injunction over off-app purchases back in 2021, but was found in contempt of that order earlier this year.

The judge didn’t take kindly to Apple putting obstacles in the way of developers trying to link to other payment options, or the fact that it still tried to take a hefty commission from those transactions.

It’s not just the US

Epic and Apple also ended up in another spat last year, over the state of third-party app stores in the EU. After the EU passed the Digital Markets Act, which forced platform developers to allow third-party stores, Epic announced it would take advantage of the legislation to bring Fortnite back to European iPhones.

Until Apple banned Epic’s developer account, declaring that the developer was “verifiably untrustworthy” and claimed the company wouldn’t comply with the rules of Apple’s developer licensing agreement. This meant the company was prevented from developing the Epic Games Store on iOS.

Epic accused Apple of breaking the law and not “allowing true competition on iOS devices.” Apple’s decision was reversed a couple of days later. But it suggested that, despite the legal changes, there was still plenty of bad blood between the two companies.

What happens to Fortnite on iPhone?

If what Epic Games says is true, then the ball may be in Apple’s court. If the company is specifically blocking Fortnite updates on iOS worldwide, then the only way around this situation is for Apple to relent.

How quickly that might happen, if it does at all, isn’t clear. Apple may backtrack, similar to how it did after banning Epic Games’ EU developer account, but it may also stand firm. In the latter case, the only way things will change is to go through the courts and lawyers.

Since Apple’s legal feud with Epic has been going on for almost 5 years now, there’s no telling how long that might take.