'Fortnite' players on Apple devices will be locked out of the new season
They won't be able to play with friends on other platforms either.
Amid the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Epic Games, Fortnite players on iOS and macOS will be locked out of the new Marvel-themed season, which starts on August 27th. Epic says Apple is blocking updates and new installs for the game through the App Store. The developer claimed Apple “will terminate our ability to develop Fortnite for Apple devices.”
Apple has blocked your ability to update Fortnite on the App Store, and has said they will terminate our ability to develop Fortnite for Apple devices. As a result, Chapter 2 - Season 4 (v14.00) will not release on Apple devices on August 27.
More info: https://t.co/O1bgKgkZCp— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 26, 2020
Fortnite players on iOS, iPad and Mac won’t be able to play with their friends on other platforms either, Epic confirmed to The Verge. Since they’ll be on the same version of the game, cross-play will still work between those platforms, but not with Android, PC and consoles. That’ll split the Fortnite player base in two.
If you already have Fortnite on your Apple device, “you should have no issues continuing to play Chapter 2 - Season 3’s v13.40 update,” according to Epic. However, the season 3 battle pass will still end tomorrow and you won’t be able to make further progress with it. If you previously downloaded the game on iOS, Epic suggests you can download it again via the “Purchased” app list in the Account section of the App Store.
Things are complicated when it comes to item gifting as well. You won’t be able to receive any gifts from other players, including the new battle pass, on iOS or Android (unless you downloaded Fortnite outside of the Google Play Store). You’ll need to log in through another platform that has access to the latest version of the game to claim the gift. However, any gifted items will be inaccessible on iOS and Google Play installs on Android.
Given the current hostilities between Epic and Apple (and Google), this isn’t entirely surprising. Epic kicked off an antitrust war against Apple when it tried to bypass its 30 percent cut of in-app purchases. Apple then pulled the game from the App Store and was ready to block all apps that use Epic’s Unreal Engine. A judge this week granted a temporary order that prevents the latter, though Apple won’t need to restore Fortnite just yet.
Updated 8/26 1:30PM ET: Noted that those on Apple devices will have limited cross-play access.
