The legal battle between Apple and Epic Games is not over. After the ruling where it was determined that the developer must pay the apple company to include a direct payment system in its Fortnite game for iOS and those of Cupertino will have to allow other payment systems to developers, now Apple has fought back by deciding not to reset the Epic Games developer account.
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This means that, despite the ruling, Epic withdrew the external payment options and paid Apple the compensation imposed by the judges, Fortnite will not be able to return to the App Store, as Apple will not consider restoring the Epic Games account until the court issues a final and unappealable decision.
Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store in August 2020, after Epic Games added an alternative payment method to avoid the 30% commission that Apple takes from in-app purchases. Given this, the game developer filed a lawsuit against the Cupertino company, regarding the policies of the App Store.
Just over a year later, in early September this year, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled in Apple’s favor in most cases, but there was a victory for Epic: a permanent injunction requiring Apple to allow developers include alternative payment systems in their applications.
Faced with these decisions, Epic appealed the ruling regarding the other lawsuits and Apple has yet to decide whether to abide by the imposed measures; the deadline for this is December 9th.
Given the time it can take to resolve appeals, the wait will be long to find out where this all ends; It is estimated that it could take five years until the case really ends and Fortnite can return to the App Store.
So for now, unless users stream the game to their iPhone from their Xbox or PlayStation, they won’t be able to enjoy Fortnite on iOS for several years.