A major change to the App Store within the past couple of months as a result of a ruling by United States district court judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers means that third-party developers like Epic Games and Spotify are finally able to direct consumers to web-based purchases rather than using the App Store’s in-app purchase method and paying Apple a 15-30% commission fee in the process.
These past couple of weeks have been an interesting roller coaster of events between Apple and Epic Games, two large companies that have been duking it out in various courtrooms all over the world for several years as a result of Apple’s anti-competitive and predatory App Store practices, which harm developers.
The Apple vs. Epic Games saga continues to heat up… this time with Epic Games scheming to try and compel Apple to approve the popular Fortnite mobile video game on its App Store via court order (at least, that’s what could happen if the game publisher gets its way).
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.
Just last week, Fortnite game publisher Epic Games re-submitted the popular battle royale game to Apple’s App Store following a U.S.-based judge’s ruling that Apple could not charge 15-30% commission fees on in-app purchases made from apps and that app makers could use their own payment systems outside of the App Store’s.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know by now that Apple ejected the popular Fortnite video game from the App Store in 2020 after game developer Epic Games introduced an in-app payment system to the game that tried to circumvent Apple’s App Store policies. This resulted in an epic legal battle between the two companies that has raged on for years.
It was only yesterday that Epic Games announced the availability of its massively popular Fortnite mobile game for the iPhone and iPad in the European Union via both the AltStore PAL and Epic Games Store alternative marketplaces.
It’s a big day for Epic Games. Not only did the company launch its wildly successful Fortnite mobile game on the AltStore PAL platform in the European Union, but it seems they’ve also kicked off the Epic Games Store.
The romance between AltStore PAL and Epic Games only continues to deepen this week following Epic Games’ MegaGrant to the AltStore team ahead of the company’s plans to host its popular Fortnite mobile game on the platform.
In what can only be described as big news for the AltStore PAL community, the AltStore Team announced in a post shared to X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday that Epic Games has provided the platform with a MegaGrant grant that will be used to cover Apple’s Core Technology Fee from now on.
There was once a time when iPhone and iPad owners could download the popular Fortnite battle royale game from the App Store. But after Apple claimed that the game had violated the App Store’s terms and conditions, the game was pulled from it, resulting in one of the most closely watched and drug-out lawsuits ever between Fortnite creator Epic Games and Apple.
Fortnite should be available to iPhone users within the European Union when the Epic Games Store launches on the iOS platform.