After a four-year legal battle with Apple, Epic Games announced this week that Fortnite will soon return to the iPhone, albeit only in the EU When it does, it will be available not only on the Apple App Store, but also on the newly independent Epic Games Store and third-party mobile stores like the AltStore

The EU will also see the first iOS and Android Epic Games Stores later this year Apple approved the Epic Games Marketplace app for iOS iPadOS in early July, and Epic Games previously said it was targeting late 2025 as a launch date in the UK

“Fortnite will soon return to iOS in the European Union, and the Epic Games store will appear on Android and iOS in the European Union worldwide, bringing great terms to all developers: store fees for payments we process are 12% and third-party payments are 0%,” Epic Games said in a press release Thursday

Epic and Apple's longstanding legal feud began in 2020 after Fortnite was removed from the App Store for circumventing a policy that blocks developers from processing app payments outside of the App Store Epic retaliated with a lawsuit, cracking Apple's “walled garden” and allowing outside payments for certain apps The law effectively forces Apple (and other platform owners like Google) to allow third-party marketplaces to do business on their operating systems

Importantly, while iOS users will no doubt rejoice at the return of “Fortnite,” players using Samsung phones will not be so lucky; Epic Games has also announced that this popular battle royale game and other Epic Library titles, announced that it is pulling out of “a mobile store that is playing the role of a rental collector without competing firmly and without serving all developers fairly”

The move also includes the Galaxy Store, which Epic Games says is “to protest Samsung's anti-competitive decision to block sideloading on Samsung Android devices by default, and to address the Android app distribution market and as a result of Google's ongoing proposal to Samsung to curb competition in the Android app distribution market, as publicly revealed in the US Epic v Google lawsuit”

Last year, Samsung introduced an auto-blocker on its phones as a security measure to protect users from malware installations, including preventing side-loading of apps and downloads via USB cable The autoblocker can be disabled in the settings app, but Epic appears to have taken issue with it being enabled by default, leading it to pull its library of games from Samsung's app store

However, with the impending opening of the Epic Games Store, it is worth noting that Samsung phone owners will have a new avenue to download their favorite Epic Games outside of the Galaxy Store