Even as its legal battle continues with Apple, Epic has filed a preliminary injunction against Apple to try and get Fortnite back on to the iOS App Store. According to The Verge, Epic’s success in the process would force Apple to reinstate Fortnite.
Epic has said that iOS is the biggest platform for Fortnite, with almost a third of its 350 million registered userbase, around 116 million registered users playing on iOS devices. Epic has also stated that 63 per cent of Fortnite players on iOS don’t play Fortnite on other platforms.
Apple released a statement to The Verge about Epic’s preliminary injunction:
“We are disappointed that we have had to terminate the Epic Games account on the App Store. We have worked with the team at Epic Games for many years on their launches and releases. The court recommended that Epic comply with the App Store guidelines while their case moves forward, guidelines they’ve followed for the past decade until they created this situation. Epic has refused. Instead they repeatedly submit Fortnite updates designed to violate the guidelines of the App Store. This is not fair to all other developers on the App Store and is putting customers in the middle of their fight. We hope that we can work together again in the future, but unfortunately that is not possible today.”
Epic has been fighting both Apple and Google about Fortnite’s payment systems for the last month. Epic’s argument is centred on Apple’s and Google’s app store fees, which Epic has called “exorbitant”.