Hot on the heels of the EU’s decision to designate Apple’s iPadOS as another digital “gatekeeper” under its Digital Markets Regulations (DMA), Fortnite maker Epic Games has confirmed that it would bring its popular Battle Royale game to iPad later this year. The company previously announced that Fortnite would return to iPhones in the EU due to the DMA, which forces Apple to compete with alternative app stores, like Epic’s Game Store.
In a post on On Monday, Epic Games welcomed the EU’s iPad decision and said it was moving “full steam ahead” to bring Fortnite to the Epic Games Store in the EU “soon” and iPads later this year.
The rivalry between Epic and Apple has been going on for years, after Epic sued the tech giant for its alleged anti-competitive behavior regarding its App Store and commission structure. Although Apple largely won that case, the court ruled that the tech giant was not a monopoly, it had to allow developers to direct their customers to other payment methods from within their apps – period for Epic which has had a wider impact across the world. developer community.
Later, when Apple revealed its intention to comply with the EU DMA, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called Apple’s new rules a form of “malicious compliance” that was “full of fees “undesirable people” and pledged to fight them. Apple responded by terminating Epic Games’ developer account, calling the game maker a “threat” to the iOS ecosystem. Shortly after the EU began investigating Apple’s decision to delete the Epic account, Apple reinstated it.
Whether or not Epic Games will be able to bring Fortnite to iPhone and iPad as planned remains to be seen, given Apple’s responses so far. However, this signals Epic’s intention to compete with Apple through its own games store on Apple’s major platforms.
techcrunch
