Epic Games Announces Delay For Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 4 on iPhone

Epic Games has made an announcement that Fortnite fans on iOS devices don’t want to hear. The highly anticipated Chapter 2, Sees 4 update won’t be available for Apple device users on Thursday as it will be for other devices. The delay comes as tensions escalate between Apple and Epic over Fortnite and the legal battle rages.

Apple and Epic had a falling out after developers at Epic implemented a direct payment system ending Apple’s 30 percent App Store commission. “Apple is blocking Fortnite updates and new installs on the App Store, and has said they will terminate our ability to develop Fortnite for Apple devices,” the company wrote Wednesday. “As a result, Fortnites newly released Chapter 2 – Season 4 update (v14.00), will not release on iOS and macOS on August 27.”

Earlier this week, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued a ruling that said Apple “has chosen to act severely” by threatening to remove access to iOS and Mac development tools. Rogers also wrote in her ruling, “The record shows potential significant damage to both the Unreal Engine platform itself, and to the gaming industry generally, including on both third-party developers and gamers,” Rogers wrote. “Epic Games and Apple are at liberty to litigate against each other, but their dispute should not create havoc to bystanders.”

Epic has maintained that using the App Store exclusively is “colluding” with Apple to maintain its monopoly. It says, “As a matter of principle, we wont participate in this scheme,” Epic said in the statement. “You, as a mobile device owner, have the right to install apps from sources of your choosing. Software makers have the right to freely express their ideas and to compete in a fair marketplace. Apples policies take these freedoms away.”