Fortnite Is Coming Back to Mobile (for Some of Us)

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Fortnite is coming back to mobile : For the past four years, the hugely popular battle royal game has been nowhere to be found on iPhone and Android. If you wanted to play Fortnite , you more often than not had to look elsewhere to get your fix. However, starting today, the game has returned to smartphones and tablets – at least for some of us.

If you have an Android device, you can play Fortnite without any problem. However, if you have an iOS device, things are a little more complicated: those of us with iPhones or iPads in the EU will have access to the game, but for the rest of the global iOS community, the Fortnite ban is still a big deal. a lot in fact.

Epic Games now has its own app store

This is because Fortnite does not appear on the iOS App Store or Android Play Store. Instead, the game’s developer, Epic Games, is offering Fortnite through its own app store, the Epic Games Store, which launches today, as well as the independent iOS app store AltStore PAL . The Epic Games Store and therefore Fortnite are available on Android devices worldwide, but both the Epic Store and AltStore PAL are only offered in the EU on iOS. If Apple had its way, EU users would also not have access to these stores.

This entire saga stems from the EU’s crackdown on Apple’s secretive business practices. The European Commission decided that Apple should open up certain aspects of its ecosystem, including allowing third-party developers to build their own web browsers (rather than building theirs based on the Safari WebKit platform) and giving developers access to the iPhone’s NFC capabilities. However, part of this decision forced Apple to allow developers to create and manage their own app stores on iOS: starting with iOS 17.4 , stores like AltStore PAL were able to sell apps to EU users without bypassing the Apple App Store. Now Epic is using the same policy, bringing games like Fortnite to European customers.

Why the delay, given that this policy went into effect in March? Apple has taken a stand against Epic: In March, the company terminated Epic’s developer account , claiming that Epic had acted in bad faith. However, after some back and forth, Epic was able to get their account back.

This isn’t all that surprising considering Apple is n’t a fan of Epic (and neither is Google for that matter). This is the reason why Fortnite is not available in their app stores in the first place. Back in 2020, Apple and Google banned Epic from hosting the game on their platforms when Epic decided to circumvent the rules for in-app purchases. Apple and Google require developers like Epic to give them a 30% discount on all purchases made through their apps. It’s expensive, and Epic didn’t like it, so the company tried to force users to pay them directly, bypassing the rules of both app stores.

Epic sued Apple and lost on all counts except one : the court found that Apple shouldn’t be allowed to block customers from paying developers directly, so now the company must offer a way for developers to advertise these external payment options. That’s a good thing, too: Because of that 30% commission , in-app purchases are often more expensive than the same content offered outside the platform.

Either way, Fortnite (as well as other Epic games like Fall Guys ) is now available on all Android and iPhone devices in the EU via the Epic Games Store.

How to Get Fortnite on Android

Whether you live in the EU or not, you can play Fortnite on your Android phone today. However, it’s not as easy as downloading a regular app, so Epic has a guide on how to download both the app store and Fortnite on your Android device:

  1. Go to the Epic Games Store download page and download the store on your phone.

  2. If you see a pop-up warning about the security of the application, click Download Anyway . (Epic claims this is a standard Android message and that their app store is secure.)

  3. After downloading the file, click “Open” .

  4. If your phone reports that you can’t download an app from this source, tap Settings in the pop-up window, then turn on the Allow from this source switch.

  5. When prompted to download the Epic Games Store, click Install .

  6. Once completed, click Open .

  7. Try downloading Fortnite from the store. You’ll see a pop-up similar to step 4, so click Settings and click the Allow from this source toggle.

  8. Click “Install” in the Fortnite pop-up window and you’re done.

How to Get Fortnite on iPhone (EU Only)

Again, to play Fortnite on iPhone, you need to live in the European Union. If you don’t do this, the following steps won’t work. As with the Android instructions, installing Fortnite on iPhone isn’t obvious, so Epic has a video to walk users through the installation :

  1. Go to the Epic Games Store download page and try to download the store on your phone.

  2. Your iPhone will tell you that your settings do not allow you to install such applications from the Internet. Click OK , then go to Settings.

  3. Click “Allow apps from Epic Games Inc.” at the top of the page, then click Allow in the pop-up window.

  4. Return to Safari, click Install , then click Install App Marketplace .

  5. Open the newly downloaded Epic Games Store, search for Fortnite and install it.

  6. Click “Install App” on the pop-up window and you’re done.

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