After years of accusations and visits to the courts, it seems that finally Fortnite will return after 3 years of exile from the iPhone. He was the CEO of Epic Games himself, Tim Sweeneywho revealed on his Twitter accountthat this year its popular game will reach all devices based on the iOS operating system.
This announcement could be linked to the latest industry reports, which indicated that Apple will allow third-party stores for iOS due to the obligations of the European territory. In this way, Fortnite would arrive linked to the Epic Games Store itself. It is not the same as being integrated into the official Apple Store, but it will still attract millions of players with a mobile device from the bitten apple.
Despite not being on iOS, Fortnite moves almost 400 million players
—Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) January 1, 2023
According to the latest data available, Fortnite currently accumulates about 390 million users to accumulate 3,300 million hours of play. In income, for now there are no updates, but we know that it generated $5.8 billion in revenue in the year 2021. Before it was banned from Apple devices, Fortnite had spawned 1.1 billion dollars only on mobile devices, with Apple users spending the most money.
It must be remembered that Apple expelled Fortnite due to the various complaints from Epic Games linked to the commissions that Apple takes. Apple doesn’t develop games, but thanks to games, it generates more revenue than most major companies that do. The reason was obvious the abusive commission of 30%.
To avoid this commission, Fortnite was silently updated by adding a third-party payment gateway to be able to buy the V-Bucks at a lower cost. If the Apple payment gateway was chosen, the same amount of PaVos was obtained, but paying 30% more real money. In case you don’t know about it, V-Bucks are the fictional in-game currency used to buy skins.
Fortnite would come to iPhone and iPad with iOS 17
Due to recent regulatory changes implemented by the European Union, Apple will be forced to allow alternative app stores on iPhone and iPad. this would happen with the arrival of iOS 17, the next update of the operating system. This version is expected to arrive in September along with the iPhone 15. In this way, it could be said that Fortnite will return to the iPhone and iPad in September.
This not only benefits Epic Games, but all developers. Just like it already happens on PC, iOS could be plagued by parallel stores, where the main claim will be to offer the same applications or games available in the official Store, but with more attractive prices. If this practice is successful, this would be bad news for Apple. In essence, could be expanded to other countries like USA.
For the moment, it will be time to wait until at least September of this year. And it is that Apple can push things a bit moresince 2024 is the deadline to comply with the regulations.
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