What many expected: Fortnite could return to the iPhone

The CEO of Epic Game has revealed on Twitter what many expected: Fortnite could return to the iPhone This game is one of the most successful in recent years, since it has a legion of followers who enjoy it on console, computer or mobile, but not on iPhone. Thanks to a change in legislation in the European Union, this may change in 2023.

On December 31, 2022, Tim Sweeney, the founder and CEO of Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, wrote a revealing tweet He first tweeted "Next year on iOS" and then replied to his own tweet with a screenshot of a Fortnite game showing fireworks forming a 2023. The message is clear: Fornite will return to iPhone in 2023.

Next year on iOS!

- Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) December 31, 2022

Currently the game is not available on the App Store or Google Play, the portals through which we download applications on iPhone and Android, respectively. In both were withdrawn in August 2020 due to the same conflict, Fortnite incorporated micropayments that avoided the 30% commission for each purchase that the App Store and Google Play must carry.

However, on Android we were able to continue playing, since this operating system allows the existence of other portals in which to download applications. Therefore, it was possible to download it from its official website.This was not the case on iPhone, where only Apple decides which apps and games are downloadable, as the App Store is the only existing portal.

Fortunately for players, what many have been waiting for has arrived: Fortnite could return to the iPhone thanks to new European Union legislation. The new European Law on Digital Markets will force companies, such as Apple, to allow alternative app download portals on their devices. This means that portals can be created from which to download Fortnite for iPhone, just like Android.

This situation also implies that possibly the return of Fortnite is limited to European territory, since it is a law originating from the European Union and will not apply to the rest of the world. Due to this, it is possible that in 2023 you can play Fortnite on your iPhone in Europe, but it will be impossible to do so from the US.

When will Fortnite return to the iPhone

After the revelation of what many expected: Fortnite could return to the iPhone, the next question is when will Fortnite return to the iPhone In principle the response is contingent on the release of iOS17. Here's why and everything we know about Fortnite's return to Apple.

The first thing to make clear is that it is currently possible to play Fortnite on iPhone thanks to a loophole: Xbox Cloud Gaming. This is a cloud gaming service that we can access from the browser, if we have a Microsoft account. Anyway, it is not the fastest way to play Fortnite, since we cannot download the game, we have to access Xbox Cloud Gaming every time we want to play a game.

To be able to download Fornite theoretically we must wait for iOS17, the future version of the iPhone operating system.This is the one that should introduce the new alternative portals to download applications. However, its release date is still far away, since we recently received the latest version of iOS 16, specifically on December 13, 2022.

Everything indicates that iOS 17 will not be released until September 2023 If we look at the release history of iPhone operating systems, September It is the month in which they usually go on the market. Surely the betas of iOS 17 will be released at the beginning of June, but most likely it is that all users will not be able to enjoy iOS17 until the last days of September.