Fortnite is back on iPhone with the launch of the mobile Epic Games Store in the EU

Fortnite Developer Epic Games is back on iOS, thanks to the launch of the Epic Games Store for mobile platforms. Epic’s game and app marketplace is now available for download on iPhones in the European Union and on Android devices worldwide, Epic announced Friday.

The mobile version of the Epic Games Store, which launched in 2018 on Mac and Windows PC, is launching with three Epic-made games: Fortnite (including Fortnite Battle Royale, Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival), Rocket League Sideways MoveAnd Fallen boysEpic says it is working with third-party developers to bring their games and apps to the Epic Games Store on mobile, and that it is also launching its games through a third-party store called AltStore.

Apple removed Fortnite from its App Store in 2020. Apple made the move — and Android maker Google did the same for the Google Play Store — in response to Epic allowing players to purchase the in-game currency V-Bucks directly from the App Store. Fortnitewhich bypasses Apple and Google’s own payment processors, which take 30% of in-app purchases. Epic Games filed suit shortly after the Fortnite was removed from each company’s digital store.

Epic Games is bringing its own app store and its popular games back to iOS thanks to support from the European Union Digital Markets Act. That legislation requires six “gatekeepers” — Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok maker ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft — to adhere to certain guidelines. Those guidelines include allowing third parties, such as Epic, to interoperate with gatekeepers’ built-in software and services, and allowing customers to interact with companies outside of gatekeepers’ platforms.

The Epic Games Store and Epic’s games will not be available on iOS outside the EU for the foreseeable future. In a press release, Epic said that “Apple continues to block all other iOS users outside of Europe from accessing Fortnite and Epic Games Store for iOS.”

Installing the Epic Games Store on iOS and Android platforms isn’t easy, though, even if you live in the EU. Epic says that installing its third-party app store is a “lengthy” 15-step process, as Apple and Google have “intentionally introduced poor installation experiences burdened by multiple steps, confusing device setups, and scary screens.” But Epic is offering some incentives to entice players on mobile devices to download the Epic Games Store and its games, with a handful of exclusive in-game cosmetics available for Fortnite fans playing the iOS or Android version.

In a call with reporters this week, Epic Games Store General Manager Steve Allison said, “The reason we’re only launching our first-party games on Friday is that Fortnite “Returning to iOS is a very strong story for players. We expect motivated players to push through that (install experience). Many will drop out, but many will survive.”

Allison said the company’s strategy for launching a mobile store is similar to that of the Epic Games Store on PC, which used free weekly games to incentivize customers to install the marketplace.

“Our goal is to get on as many (devices) as possible, because once you go through those steps, if you have the Epic Games Store on your device, or (alternative app stores) Aptoide or AltStore, getting an app is just like on iOS or Android. It’s one or two clicks,” Allison said. “So we’re really using this time between now and the end of the year to get as many installs as possible, so that we have as many users in a good place as possible, so that they don’t have to experience that friction and frustrate third-party developers who come on board with us.”

Allison added: “We’re pretty excited about how the tactics (and) strategies we’ve employed on PC have worked for us. We believe it will have a similar outcome on mobile.”

For now, Epic’s attempts to launch an alternative to Apple and Google’s app stores are limited to EU countries. There are no plans to Fortnite and the mobile Epic Games Store back to US consumers, but Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says there is hope for other markets. Recent legislation, including the UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act and a similar legislation in Japancould help make more third-party stores available to devices powered by Apple or Google operating systems.

“It’s a colossal failure of the American regulatory and political system that there’s not been a clear, clean action to stop the monopolization in the United States and the entire world by an American company,” Sweeney said in a call with reporters. “That’s disheartening to see. But hopefully someone will continue to address this in the years to come. In the meantime, we anticipate that for the foreseeable future, perhaps years to come, we’ll be locked out of the iOS App Store, except in these areas, as we continue to fight globally.”