At least strange turn of events. Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games who has vowed to sue Apple in the US Supreme Court over App Store terms, recently suggested on Twitter that Fortnite could officially return to iOS in 2023.
The emphasis is on the word “officially”, because we can play Fortnite on our iPhone or iPad thanks to cloud services like GeForce NOW. But Sweeney saying this out of the blue may indicate there are plans in the works that we weren’t aware of. Until today.
Fortnite on iPhone: a return full of doubts
Let’s summarize. Epic Games challenged Apple by launching its own payment system within Fortnite, which violated App Store rules. This prompted Apple to remove Fortnite from its store and start a legal battle full of contradictions.
Courts enforced measures, such as allowing the Unreal Engine to continue to work in iOS games, but it was ultimately ruled that Epic Games had paid Apple six million dollars. Tim Sweeney swore that Fortnite would never set foot on the App Store again. It seems that this oath lasted fifteen months.
Next year on iOS!
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) December 31, 2022
Sweeney posted this encrypted message with a reply that includes a screenshot of Fortnite, which we believe is a clue. He does not give more details, but of course: you have to know how to do. Either Apple is dropping something, or Epic Games is dropping something.
Maybe at Epic Games they decided to get the game back without their payment method so they could return to the store, or maybe they’re negotiating with Apple to call off all hostilities and establish reconciliation terms that benefit both. parts.
We can also think of the rumored alternative App Stores that Gurman talked about recently: maybe Epic Games is already preparing its own store on iOS by looking at the movements of the European Union? It wouldn’t surprise me, although to say that something like this will happen this year is somewhat risky in my opinion.
What we can say is that it looks like we’re going to see a step forward when it comes to Epic Games and the App Store. It will be a matter of waiting and seeing what happens, maybe we will see something at WWDC23 in the form of platform news.
