The Epic Games Store will make its big return to iOS, thank you Europe

This is the end of a battle that lasted 4 years. In a few months, the Epic Games Store will once again have its iOS application. The news was announced this weekend, without giving a specific date. For the moment, only Europe will be concerned, since this return will take place under the sign of the DMA.

4 years ago, Fornite and the entire Epic Games Store disappeared from the Apple ecosystem. In question, a standoff which will pit the Cupertino company and Epic in the years that follow, against a backdrop of too high a commission on the App Store and abuse of dominant position. Although the trial has long since ended, Apple has kept the door closed to its rival.

But Europe had to get involved. As the DMA application date fast approaches, and the App Store is now considered a gatekeeper, Apple will have to make some concessions. The first will be to let other application stores be installed on iOS. The second will be to let Epic return to the operating system.

Fortnite will soon be playable on iPhone again

No date has been revealed yet, but we can imagine that the return of the Epic Games Store will take place in the coming months, with the DMA coming into force in March. This is excellent news for Fornite players (among others) who have no longer been able to access their account from an iPhone or iPad since 2020. For Apple, on the other hand, it is a new hard blow from Europe, on a company that was built around the notion of exclusivity.

On the same subject —The Epic Games Store is not profitable, is this the end of free games?

“I will be the first to acknowledge that Apple acted in good faith in the midst of our cataclysmic antitrust battle, granting Epic Games Sweden AB a developer account to operate the Epic Games Store and Fortnite in Europe as part of the Digital Markets Act”, responded Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic, to the news on X (Twitter). It is doubtful whether the rest of the world will be affected in the future.