Fortnite is back on the iPhone, four years almost to the day after a battle between Apple and the game’s maker, Epic, saw it removed. As you might imagine, there’s a catch. It’s only downloadable in one place, the EU, and its return is because of the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act.
Under the DMA, Apple was required to permit the installation of app marketplaces beyond Apple’s own App Store, and on Friday, August 16, the most highly anticipated of these arrived in the form of the Epic Games Store.
Once you’ve downloaded the store, which is only available to those iPhone users in the EU who have iOS 17.6 installed, you have access to a small number of games including Fall Guys and—the big one—Fortnite. Epic says the number of games will grow.
The history of the dispute between Apple and Epic is that Apple accused Epic of trying to avoid paying commission on in-app purchases and removed the game from the App Store. Fortnite is free to download and use, but has its own in-game currency which users can buy. Exactly four years ago, in August 2020, the game has not been playable on the iPhone or iPad.
While it’s still be available on Android devices, Android users around the world can now also choose to download the Epic Games Store, as well as on another digital storefront called AltStore Pal.
For the iPhone, Epic Games Store is the fifth alternative marketplaces now available in the EU, with the other three being Setapp Mobile, Aptoide (which has not yet fully launched) and Mobivention, which has a B2B focus.
Epic Games Store is by far the biggest of these. Installation is easy, if a bit of a faff. Once you’ve chosen to download it, you immediately need to go to the Settings app and confirm that you’re happy to install games from Epic Games Store, then go back to the Epic website and choose download.
Once you’ve done that, playing Fortnite is easy, and it is as smooth and good-looking as ever.
Will it lead to more countries introducing the same rules as the EU has? It seems likely that the U.S., U.K. and Australia are among those watching carefully to decide if they should follow suit.
For now, users in the EU can go to Epic’s website on their iPhones and download the storefront.
While Apple emphatically did not want to allow sideloading of games, and is sincere in saying that the security of the user experience is central to its objections, it also doesn’t want to lose the revenue it makes from developers—which was the start of the dispute with Epic in the first place. Personally, I suspect most users are happy with the convenience and reliability of just having one marketplace, the Apple App Store on their iPhones. But this could be a turning point for iPhone users in the EU.