Just last night we reported on Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney’s statement that Apple had neither approved nor rejected the company’s popular Fortnite mobile game for the iOS & iPadOS App Store after a resubmission following a United States-based court order that ruled Apple needed to allow third-party payment options in apps rather than going through the App Store and collecting the 15-30% Apple tax for every transaction.
Epic Games since pulled and re-submitted their original game submission since they had planned to release a cross-platform update and wanted the latest release to be available for iOS & iPadOS users as well. But after crickets from Apple for nearly a week, no one really knew what was going to happen as Apple was slow walking the app review process.
We finally have an update this morning, and it’s news that Fortnite fans probably won’t want to hear… Apple appears to have rejected the app submission, which means that it will not be available on iPhones and iPads via the App Store in the United State, as has been the case all along since the Apple v. Epic Games dispute first began.
Epic Games responded to the rejection by making its Fortnite mobile game unavailable worldwide — including in the European Union. This includes versions of the game that were available to iPhone and iPad users in other parts of the world besides the United States via the Epic Games Store and AltStore PAL third-party marketplaces, which can exist in the European Union because of rulings made by regulators who see through Apple’s anti-competitive practices.
Epic Games’ decision to pull the game worldwide on Apple’s mobile platform is likely because the cross-platform game needs to be on the same version across all devices to work properly, but it may also be the beginning of yet another legal dispute. We’ll need to wait and see to know for sure, but call it a hunch…
It’s worth noting that Epic Games couldn’t use its Apple Developer account to submit Fortnite Mobile to the App Store because it’s banned in the United States. Instead, Epic Games used a Swedish Apple Developer account that they actively use in the European Union for the submission. We do not yet know if this had something to do with the rejection, or if this was just Apple being Apple and displaying hostile control as they always do toward any dissent.
In any case, it will be interesting to see how this situation gets handled considering the constant back and forth that seems to occur between Apple and a relentless Tim Sweeney.