Fornite returns to the App Store globally, a year after its return to the United States

The battle royale Fortnite can now be downloaded again from the Apple App Store globally, with the exception of Australia, after a ban of almost five years derived from Epic’s legal battle with Apple, and a year after its return for United States users.

The litigation between Apple and Epic Games, which began in August 2020 after the expulsion of Fortnite from the App Store for introducing an alternative payment system to that of the application store with which Apple did not obtain commissions, It has been one of the most momentous legal battles of the digital age.

Thus, the dispute over the commissions that Apple charges developers has ended up transforming the rules of the mobile application economy, in its case, modifying policies to allow links to external payments and adjusting commissions on income from application sales to 27 percent.

Five years later, Epic Games has shared from its website that Fortnite is once again available in the App Store globally, within a framework in which the United States federal court will force Apple to be transparent about how it collects commissions from its application store.

Specifically, the creators of Fortnite have indicated that they are sure that “once Apple is forced to reveal its costs, the “Governments around the world will not allow Apple to continue charging abusive fees.”

Likewise, Epic Games has recalled in the same statement that, as Apple indicated to the United States Supreme Court, “regulatory bodies around the world are following this case to determine what percentage of commission Apple can charge for affected purchases in large markets outside the United States.”

In this regard, he has reiterated that his objective continues to be challenge Apple’s “anti-competitive practices” in the App Store to prohibit alternative application stores and competition in payment systems, and has stressed that legal actions have already been taken around the world under the same objective, as is the case of the European Union or Japan.

All of this has made Epic Games consider it appropriate to make its Fortnite video game available to iOS users again through the App Store although, at the moment, Fortnite is not available in Australia. In this case, the company has explained that, although it won its lawsuit against Apple, it considers that the iPhone manufacturer continues to apply unfair terms for developers. Epic has asked the court to put an end to this conduct by Apple and to institute measures that benefit all app developers and iOS users.

It should be noted that Fortnite returned to the App Store in the United States just a year ago and it was expected that at some point it would be globally as happened hours ago. In the Google Play Store it has been available since March 19 of this year for all Android users after the journey suffered by Epic Games, which forced followers to install it through its own store with an APK file that had to be downloaded alternatively.

Epic Games, just days after Fortnite became available globally on Android, announced massive layoffs affecting more than 1,000 employees. The CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, in an official internal statement written by himself and addressed to all workers stated: “We’re only in the early stages of our return to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones; and being at the forefront of the industry, we have taken a lot of bullets in a battle that is just beginning to bear fruit for us and all developers.”