No more ‘Fortnite’ on iPhone: Apple vs. Epic legal fight blocks future iOS game updates
Epic confirms the iOS version of the game will no longer be able to receive future updates, which means the game won’t work the next time the game receives a patch. “Fortnite” has remained one of the world’s most popular games thanks to constant updates. Updates include new game modes, map changes, characters and other features, all core elements of the wildly popular game.
Alongside the lawsuit, Epic launched a PR salvo Thursday as well, creating a marketing trailer that tied in with the suit and App Store removal.
“Fortnite” was released as a free game in 2017 by Epic Games. While it failed to make an immediate splash, the game quickly pivoted toward the then-growing battle royale game genre, which drew more fans every month. The game’s popularity skyrocketed in March 2018 when Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, one of the world’s most popular streaming personalities, played matches of “Fortnite” with rappers Drake and Travis Scott, and NFL star JuJu Smith-Schuster.
The game then became a global cultural touchpoint, becoming so popular that national sports leagues grew concerned about lax player training schedules, and Netflix executives cited the game, and not HBO or HULU, as the company’s biggest competitor. The game saw 100 million downloads from the App Store in its first five months in 2018. In 2019, Epic Games boasted the game had about 250 million active accounts a month overall.
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