Fortnite Returns to the U.S. App Store for iOS

Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:

After a nearly five-year hiatus, Fortnite is back on the App Store for iPhone and iPad users in the United States. Epic Games announced the return of the battle royale gaming app this afternoon, and you can head to the App Store now to download it.

Son of a bitch Epic did it. This was like a double bank shot.

It was smart for Apple to just concede here. Pick your battles is a cliché but it’s a great truism. Even if Apple’s executives still wanted to keep Fortnite out of the App Store, even if they still think they’d win, ultimately, in court, why fight over this? I think they would win, but probably not with Judge Gonzales Rogers, so they’d be looking at a protracted series of appeals. Why bother?

Also, fascinatingly, neither Apple nor anyone from Apple has commented on this whole thing at any point. Epic published the letter their attorneys received from Apple’s attorneys, which I’m sure Apple fully expected, but Apple itself has never said a word about Epic’s submission of Fortnite to the US App Store.

The craziest thing about this entire saga is that Apple won the original lawsuit on 9/10 or 10/11 points, depending on how you count them. The only point they lost on was the anti-steering nonsense — not allowing apps to link out the web for purchases, or even tell users about offers available on the web. That was the only point they lost on, and it was the one thing Apple has been most clearly wrong about all along.

All Apple had to do was allow apps to link out to the web, which clearly should have been allowed since forever ago — link-outs were the antitrust/competition escape valve — and they’d have swept the entire Epic lawsuit and it would have been over four years ago.

★ Wednesday, 21 May 2025