STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Epic Games’ “Fortnite” video game was not available on Apple’s iPhone devices in the European Union and the United States on Friday.
Access to Fortnite via Apple’s iPhone Operating System and through its App Store will be unavailable worldwide until Apple unblocks it, Epic Games said.
Epic Games did not give a reason why Fortnite was blocked, but Apple said it had asked Epic Sweden to resubmit the app update without including the U.S. storefront so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies.
“We did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces,” an Apple spokesperson said.
Epic, a U.S.-based studio, backed by China’s Tencent, is the world’s largest game studio. It was launched in 2017 and its last-player-standing, “battle royale” format became an instant hit, drawing millions of players.
Since 2020, it has been in a legal battle with Apple, after the gaming firm alleged that Apple’s practice of charging a commission of up to 30% on in-app payments violated U.S. antitrust rules.
Late on Friday, Epic Games asked a U.S. judge in California to hold Apple in contempt for blocking the return of “Fortnite” to the App Store in the U.S. In a court filing, Epic said Apple should be required, as part of a prior court ruling to allow the distribution of Fortnite.
Apple’s blocking of the app was “blatant retaliation against Epic for challenging Apple’s anticompetitive behavior and exposing its lies to the court,” Epic’s filing added.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the filing outside regular business hours.
Apple banned Fortnite from its store in 2020 but allowed the game back last year following pressure from European Union authorities for Big Tech companies to comply with the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.
Last year, it also approved Epic Games’ marketplace app on iPhones and iPads in Europe.
Epic Games also won a case against Apple earlier this month.
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm, additional reporting by Akash Sriram, Mike Scarcella and Gursimran Kaur; editing by Barbara Lewis, Alan Barona and Sonali Paul)
