Fortnite might return to iPhones this year

Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney has teased Fortnite’s return to iOS devices this year, after being taken off the App Store in 2020

Fortnite might make a triumphant return to the iOS App Store in 2023, according to a tease from developer Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney.

Sweeney tweeted late in the hours of December 31, teasing the return of Fortnite on iOS devices. The tweet featured a screenshot of Fortnite, showing fireworks spelling out “2023”, and was captioned “Next year on iOS!”.

Epic and Apple’s rocky relationship started in 2020, after Epic Games introduced an in-app payment system to Fortnite that entirely bypassed iOS’s App Store payment processing. According to Apple, the move was a violation of the App Store’s terms of service, and Fortnite was pulled from the store shortly after.

Immediately following the stunt, Epic published a video advertisement styled after Apple’s own famous 1984 advert, which itself referenced George Orwell’s classic novel 1984. The video publicly positioned Epic as pro-consumer rights, arguing that Apple held too much control over its own ecosystem.

What followed was a lengthy lawsuit filed by Epic against Apple, in which Epic argued that Apple’s refusal to allow third-party payment processing on iOS devices was anticompetitive. In late-2021, the court ruled in favour of Apple on nine of the ten counts brought before it. Epic appealed the ruling, and a new round of hearings began in November 2022.

iOS users have been able to play Fortnite on iPhones and iPads through other means, such as Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia’s GeForce Now, but the game’s ban from the App Store increased the friction of the experience for potential players.

The disagreements between the two companies may finally end in 2023, if Sweeney’s tweet is suggesting what it seems to be, though how and when that will come about is anybody’s guess.

Fortnite maker Epic Games was recently fined $775 million for tricking kids, in the biggest FTC ruling in video games to date. The FTC said that Epic was negligent in its collection of information without parental consent, which is required by US law.

The FTC also accused Epic of being reckless with its default chat options, which the FTC said led to children getting “bullied, threatened, harassed, and exposed to dangerous and psychologically traumatising issues”. That’s in addition to complaints levied against the company around something called “dark patterns”, which is the practice of tricking users into making unwanted purchases.

Fortnite’s latest chapter introduced a host of new features, including vaulting. Picture: Epic Games

As part of its response to the ruling, Fortnite introduced child-friendly accounts, which forces accounts owned by players 13 and under to seek parental permission before using a number of features, such as communicating with other players, purchasing items with money, and viewing custom display names.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.