Epic’s long-running battle with Apple over the way forward for Fortnite on iOS units has taken one other flip, with Epic accusing Apple of blocking its Fortnite submission so it could possibly’t launch the sport to the U.S. App Store.
Earlier this month, Epic boss Tim Sweeney stated Fortnite would return to the U.S. iOS App Store and iPhones in a matter of days after a major court docket ruling.
On April 30, a U.S. Federal District Courtroom in California discovered that Apple wilfully violated a court docket order in the Epic Video games v. Apple case that required Apple to allow builders to provide their prospects other ways to make purchases outdoors apps.
In January, IGN reported on how Sweeney had spent billions of {dollars} combating Apple and Google over the means the corporations run their app shops. Sweeney informed IGN at the time that he thought of it a long-term funding in Epic and Fortnite’s future, insisting Epic might afford to sustain the battle for many years to come.
Sweeney’s ongoing battle to get Fortnite again on iPhones and Android telephones whereas avoiding paying retailer charges is well-documented. The gist is that this: Epic doesn’t need to pay the now commonplace 30% retailer charges on income made on cellular video games. As a substitute, it needs to run the likes of Fortnite via its personal cellular retailer, the Epic Video games Store, with out Apple and Google getting in the means and gobbling up its revenue. Again in 2020, this dispute ended up with Fortnite blocked from launch on iOS.
After Sweeney’s tweet it was anticipated that Fortnite would return to iOS, however thus far… nothing. And now, Epic has issued an announcement to IGN offering an replace:
“Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we can not launch to the US App Store or to the Epic Video games Store for iOS in the European Union. Now, sadly, Fortnite on iOS might be offline worldwide till Apple unblocks it.”
That’s a horrible scenario for Epic, which has misplaced out on billions of {dollars} of income in the 5 years since Fortnite was booted off iPhones. Now, Tim Sweeney is tweeting at Apple boss Tim Cook to attempt to get him to change his thoughts.
“Hello Tim. How about if you happen to let our mutual prospects entry Fortnite? Only a thought.”
Hello Tim. How about if you happen to let our mutual prospects entry Fortnite? Only a thought.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) May 15, 2025
After the court docket ruling, Apple was referred to federal prosecutors for violating the U.S. court docket order. “Apple’s continued makes an attempt to intrude with competitors is not going to be tolerated,” U.S. District Choose Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated. “That is an injunction, not a negotiation. There aren’t any do-overs as soon as a celebration willfully disregards a court docket order.”
The Choose referred Apple and considered one of its executives, Alex Roman, vp of finance, to federal prosecutors for a felony contempt investigation into their conduct in the case. Roman gave testimony about the steps Apple took to comply along with her injunction that was “replete with misdirection and outright lies,” the choose wrote.
In an announcement issued at the time, Apple stated: “we strongly disagree with the resolution. We are going to adjust to the court docket’s order and we’ll enchantment.” Final week, Apple requested the U.S. appeals court docket to pause the ruling in the Epic Video games case.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.