Epic Games Introduces New Motion to Reset Fortnite on Apple’s App Store After Massive Drop in iOS Player Base



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Epic Games has filed a new motion in its ongoing legal dispute against Apple, asking the courts to reinstate Fortnite to the App Store after a decline of more than 60 percent in daily active users of the game on iOS, The edge reported.

Following Apple’s removal of Fortnite From the App Store in late August, Epic went to court with a motion to allow the developer to keep updating Fortnite until the dispute was resolved. The judge denied Epic’s first motion, but Epic was allowed to keep their Apple developer accounts to continue working on Unreal Engine so that other game developers using the engine would not suffer profit losses in the process.

From Fortnite Meanwhile, Chapter Two, Season Four moved forward, and Epic was unable to bring the update to iOS players, causing a massive decrease in From Fortnite player count. After losing more than 60 percent of its iOS player base, Epic asked the court to reconsider its decision and put Fortnite again on the Apple App Store.

The antitrust lawsuit between Epic and Apple is scheduled for September 28, but the developer hopes to be able to update the game early to retain its players. The main reason Epic’s first motion was denied was that the developer did not provide sufficient evidence to support how much damage From Fortnite removing the app store would cause both Epic and their players.

Epic’s latest motion highlights the loss of players since the court’s previous decision and how it related to the developer’s inability to update their iOS version of Fortnite to the last season. Despite the number of platforms Fortnite available on iOS still accounts for nearly a third of the entire player base, and Epic fears it may not be able to retain these agitated players.

Image via Epic Games

Although Apple allowed Epic to run on the Unreal Engine, Epic cannot support its other mobile games on the platform besides Fortnite. Battle Breakers, Infinity Blade 3and the next Spyjinx they all face the same fate. Apple’s current stance also allows it to deny Epic apps to new developer accounts for up to one year.

While it’s hard to tell if the case Epic built since last time will be able to change the judge’s opinion, Apple doesn’t seem like it has plans to step back. The company argues that it had a supportive relationship with Epic prior to this incident, and it would be unfair to other developers on the platform to allow Epic to do whatever it wants, that is, to introduce alternative payment methods. While what Epic did was in the best interest of gamers, it was still against Apple’s Terms of Service, giving Apple the right to take whatever precautions it sees fit.



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