The video game Fortnite announces its comeback on iPhone in Europe

“Remember Fortnite on iOS? What if we do it again?” It is with this simple sentence that Epic Games, the publisher of the survival game Fortnite, announced on its X account (ex-twitter) that it would be making a comeback on Apple devices “in the coming months” on the European continent.

The American studio will in fact be able to distribute its successful game in Europe without having to go through the AppStore, Apple's application store. It intends to do this directly on its own platform, the Epic Games Store, which should be authorized on Apple's iOS mobile operating system.

This sudden turnaround is due to the European law on digital markets (DMA), which aims to reinstate more competition between large tech companies.

The text must come into force in March and to comply with it, Apple presented on Wednesday a series of measures aimed at opening up its iPhone ecosystem. It allows, among other things, the downloading of applications to its devices without having to go through its AppStore.

A small victory for Epic Games, which has not been present in Apple's application store for almost four years. In 2020, the studio voluntarily sought to circumvent the commission system of Apple's but also Google's application stores, leading to its ban from both platforms.

For each purchase or subscription made on an application from the Apple AppStore or the Google Play Store, the developer must pay a commission of up to 30%. A practice deemed anti-competitive and widely denounced by Epic Games, which filed a lawsuit in the United States against the two companies.

On January 16, the American Supreme Court ended the legal battle between Epic Games and Apple, by refusing to hear the complaint filed by the creators of the game Fortnite. “The legal battle for the opening of the iOS operating system is lost in the United States. A sad conclusion for all developers,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said at the time.

In Europe, the outcome is different thanks to the Digital Market Act, with which Apple must comply under penalty of a fine representing 10% of its global turnover.

Apple also announced on Wednesday that it would lower the amount of its commissions on the AppStore, which will now be 20% instead of 30%. They will even drop to 17% for developers who choose not to use the payment system integrated into the AppStore.

However, the company has not said its last word. Apple is already planning a new commission, called the “Core Technology Fee”, which will apply in particular to publishers who distribute their applications outside the AppStore – which will be the case for Epic Games. Applications exceeding one million downloads per year on its iOs mobile operating system will have to pay 0.50 euros per year per installation. Tim Sweeney, the boss of Epic Games, immediately denounced an “illegal and anti-competitive scheme”.