An ongoing dispute between Apple and Epic Games resulted in Fortnite being removed from the App Store for over five years, but this week the game finally makes its return.
Fortnite and Apple have been doing battle in court since 2020 which initially made the IOS version unavailable worldwide.
Fortnite returns to USA App Store
Following a lengthy process in court between the two companies, Apple has finally approved the return of Fortnite’s IOS version in the USA however there still seems to be bad blood between the pair.
Fortnite had initially submit a proposal to get the game returned to the App Store at the beginning of May but Apple continued to dispute this, ignoring the proposal for five days before blocking it altogether.
It seemed like Fortnite would never make a return to the App Store after Apple blocked the latest proposal from Epic Games at the start of the month but finally there has been a breakthrough this week.
Apple had made it clear that it would not reinstate Fortnite to the App Store until the court had heard out its appeal to the latest hearing with a formal appeal process launched.
The appeal didn’t go in Apple’s favor though, as Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers put an end to the situation that was beginning to drag on.
The judge stated that the Apple official “personally responsible for ensuring compliance” would have to appear in court at a hearing on May 27th if Apple didn’t resolve the issue in time.
Within 24 hours of the judge threatening Apple, Fortnite became available on the USA App Store yet again.
It seems that Apple is still unhappy with the result of its court case against Epic Games though and it is unlikely that this is the end of the dispute.
When will Fortnite return to IOS for UK users?
According to the official Fortnite X account, the app should be on the Epic Games Store and AltStore in Europe today, but there is still no sign of the game on the UK App Store.
Unfortunately there has been no updates from either Epic Games or Apple on when they plan on restoring Fortnite to the App Store – if ever.
Fans from the UK have been left waiting over five years for the game to return and it seems their only option is to simply hold out even longer.
Fortnite making a return to the US App Store is a big breakthrough for the game though and UK fans can only hope that it is a sign of things to come for the future.
