Fortnite “Blocked”
Dominic Preston (MacRumors, Hacker News, Slashdot, TechCrunch, The Register):
Fortnite maker Epic Games has announced that Apple has blocked the game’s return to iOS. Following the rejection, Fortnite is no longer available on iPhones and iPads even in the European Union, where it had previously been available to download through the Epic Games Store.
“Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we cannot release to the US App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union,” the company posted on the official Fortnite X account. “Now, sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it.”
They do not actually say that Apple rejected the app or what Apple’s specific issue was.
we do not know what Epic means by ‘blocked’, so it could mean that Epic submitted the exact same build of the app to the App Store as external stores, and because it was rejected from one it was automatically rejected from all (and that a new build could be submitted). It could alternatively mean that App Review has invoked the spam clause, and has paused all further submissions of that app, or all apps for that developer account
Epic may be manually withholding the existing version from the Epic Games Store on iOS as it is no longer correctly versioned to talk to servers in today’s wider content release
From talking with Epic this is my understanding: Fortnite wasn’t rejected by Apple, it just wasn’t approved by today when they needed it to be. So they’re disabling new downloads for now.
However, because you can only submit an app for notarization OR App Store, they couldn’t submit an update to just Epic Games Store/AltStore until they pulled it from App Store review.
Apple does allow having multiple SKUs for the same app, and in the past has required this to take advantage of region-specific options.
We have separate SKUs for Delta and the beta version of Delta for this reason, but technically Guideline 4.3(a) (which applies to notarization) says “Don’t create multiple Bundle IDs of the same app”
My guess is Epic just didn’t think about it though and submitted the SKU they already had thinking it wouldn’t be an issue
Apple says that it did not take action to block Epic Games from releasing its Fortnite update in the European Union. Instead, the company asked it to resubmit the EU update without including the US to avoid impacting other regions.
Apple today clarified that it has not blocked Epic Games from updating the iOS Fortnite app in the European Union, but it is not planning to allow Epic Games to offer Fortnite in the United States App Store at the current time.
Apple’s statement to Bloomberg is poorly worded and vague. MacRumors appears to reading a lot into it, without any additional, direct clarification from Apple.
Epic’s public statements are also poorly worded and vague.
It would be nice if these fucking companies communicated precisely and accurately. Instead they seem content to play PR games.
So you can submit the same app build for both the App Store and an EU marketplace, but if you do then the review process is combined and uses the stricter App Store criteria instead of the more lenient EU criteria.
However, this doesn’t explain why Fortnite is unavailable in the EU, because the mere rejection of a new submission doesn’t remove the current version from distribution.
Previously:
Update (2025-05-19): Jeff Johnson:
These tweets, as they are still called, have given many people the impression that Apple is indefinitely blocking Epic Games from updating its iPhone app Fortnite in the European Union, where it’s available in an alternative marketplace outside the App Store, as prescribed by the EU Digital Markets Act. I’ll cite several sources, including court documents and Apple’s developer documentation, to show that Epic Games could still update Fortnite in the EU, if they chose to do so.
[…]
Presumably, “unchecking the relevant box” refers to the Review Type in the screenshot from the Apple developer documentation. I am puzzled, though, by the phrase “separately through an entity other than Epic Sweden.” I have no idea what Apple’s attorney is referring to here, especially since the previous paragraph said, “regardless of which Epic-related entity submits the app.” Purely speculating, the only interpretation that makes a bit of sense to me is that Apple wants Epic’s developer account for alternative distribution in the EU to remain devoted exclusively to that purpose and completely avoid touching the App Store, whereas an entirely separate account could submit Fortnite to the App Store, although of course Apple has no current intention to approve such a submission, pending court decisions.
[…]
To be perfectly clear: Apple is indefinitely blocking the May 14 submission of Fortnite that includes both the US App Store and the EU alternative marketplace, but Apple is not blocking EU-only submissions of Fortnite, which can continue at any time.
Previously:
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Regardless of why, it seems Apple continues to be petty. All they have to do is just let them back, and move on and get this out of the media.
Not sure why Epic thought Apple would let them back into the US App Store. @Total is right: Epic tried a power play. Again. What made them think they'd get a different result this time?
@DJ Because Apple made multiple public statements saying that they would welcome Epic back if they followed the rules. As recently as May 2, 2025, “Apple notified Epic, through counsel, that if Epic wanted to submit a build of Fortnite for the U.S. App Store through the Swedish account, Epic should do so.”
Even if you think Apple should reject the app, shouldn’t they actually do that instead of holding the submission in limbo?
