Fortnite coming to iPhones in the EU via AltStore

Even with the Epic Games Store set to launch in the EU on iPhone, Epic has announced its games will be coming to other alternative app stores that "give developers a great deal," like AltStore PAL.

The battle of Apple versus Epic may never end, with the latest chapter unfolding around EU regulations like the Digital Markets Act. Now that third-party stores and sideloading exist for EU iPhone users, Epic has an avenue to bring Fortnite back to the platform.

Plans are already underway to bring the Epic Games Store to iOS and Android devices later in 2024, but that's not the only destination for Fortnite on iPhone. Epic has also announced that it will distribute its games on third-party app stores.

The short blog post detailed that Epic will end distribution partnerships with mobile stores that serve as "rent collectors" in favor of stores that give developers a "great deal." This means leaving the Samsung Galaxy Store in favor of stores like the AltStore PAL.

AltStore is the distributor for Delta, the Nintendo emulator that helped pioneer allowing emulators on iPhone in and out of the EU.

No timelines were announced, but the return of Fortnite to iPhone has been long coming. Tim Sweeney promised a release in 2023, but it is now expected by the end of 2024.

Fortnite's return comes after years of legal battles between Apple and Epic in the United States. Despite Apple winning that battle on almost every front, Epic is finally able to skirt Apple's in-app purchase system entirely in the EU.

12 Comments

therben 2 Years · 1 comment

About 4 months ago

As a Fortnite player and Apple devotee I could not care less about this. There are way to many game mechanics to have any fun on such a tiny screen or even to use touch controls.

foregoneconclusion 12 Years · 2857 comments

Fortnite was already available on iOS via three different browser game streaming platforms.

macxpress 16 Years · 5913 comments

I can't wait for this to be a failure so Mr Sweeney can bitch and complain again about how Apple's App Store practices are unfair after he can't even get people to buy his apps and addon's via a 3rd party store.

nubus 8 Years · 627 comments

macxpress said:

I can't wait for this to be a failure so Mr Sweeney can bitch and complain again about how Apple's App Store practices are unfair after he can't even get people to buy his apps and addon's via a 3rd party store.

Triple-A gaming on iOS is a failure with Fornite being the exception. The fact that Apple didn't make a quiet "marketing kickback" deal but allowed fragmentation of App Store is on Apple. Will it work? It takes devoted users to make this happen and Fortnite users are devoted.

davidw 17 Years · 2119 comments

nubus said:

macxpress said:

I can't wait for this to be a failure so Mr Sweeney can bitch and complain again about how Apple's App Store practices are unfair after he can't even get people to buy his apps and addon's via a 3rd party store.

Triple-A gaming on iOS is a failure with Fornite being the exception. The fact that Apple didn't make a quiet "marketing kickback" deal but allowed fragmentation of App Store is on Apple. Will it work? It takes devoted users to make this happen and Fortnite users are devoted.

A "quiet" "marketing kickback" deal? Nothing is "quiet" with that sleazeball Sweeney. Google tried to make a "marketing kickball" deal with that sleazeball and Sweeney ended up using it against Google in their Google Play Store monopoly lawsuit. Sweeney used that offered deal (and other deals that Google had made other developers) as evidence (to a jury) that Google was being anti-competitive and behaving like an illegal monopolist with the monopoly power they had with their Google Play Store. Apple did nothing wrong by not making any "quiet" deal with such a sleazeball. It is totally on Sweeney, that Epic Games had loss hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue on both iOS and Android, by violating their respective app store policies and getting the boot.

https://www.businessinsider.com/epic-google-project-hug-play-store-secret-deal-velocity-program-2021-8

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/16/epic-games-antitrust-google-apple
>Google’s dealings with app developers played a prominent role during the trial. In particular, Epic repeatedly pointed to an initiative called “Project Hug” where the company paid major game developers like Activision and Nintendo millions of dollars in incentives to keep their wares in the Play store and persuade them not to create their own rival stores. The stakes were high. Activision alone was reportedly offered $350m. Epic was offered $147m to keep Fortnite on Google Play. Google documents reportedly referred to Epic in this case as a worrisome “contagon” that could cause other developers to defect.
“None of those circumstances, as I understand it, exists in the Apple case,” said Katherine Van Dyck, senior legal council for the American Economic Liberties Project. “In the Apple case, it’s simply that Apple only has one App Store and won’t allow any others.”<