No more dropping in from Apple products?

Epic Games’ battle royale game Fortnite has been removed from the from the App Store for Apple devices. This comes after Epic Games created a way to bypass the app store fee for players looking to buy V-bucks on mobile devices where the game can be played.

Apple released the following statement to the Verge about why Fortnite by Epic Games has been removed from the App Store after the studio made a change in how V-bucks(the in-game currency of Fortnite) costs for players to buy directly through the game.

Today, Epic Games took the unfortunate step of violating the App Store guidelines that are applied equally to every developer and designed to keep the store safe for our users. As a result their Fortnite app has been removed from the store. Epic enabled a feature in its app which was not reviewed or approved by Apple, and they did so with the express intent of violating the App Store guidelines regarding in-app payments that apply to every developer who sells digital goods or services.

Epic has had apps on the App Store for a decade, and have benefited from the App Store ecosystem – including its tools, testing, and distribution that Apple provides to all developers. Epic agreed to the App Store terms and guidelines freely and we’re glad they’ve built such a successful business on the App Store. The fact that their business interests now lead them to push for a special arrangement does not change the fact that these guidelines create a level playing field for all developers and make the store safe for all users. We will make every effort to work with Epic to resolve these violations so they can return Fortnite to the App Store.

So what does this mean for Fortnite players? Well they can still play until the next update and still purchase V-Bucks but you can’t download the game if you have not done so already on your Apple product. Fortnite on the Switch has not been affected and it looks like this will be limited just to mobile players using Apple devices.

Both the App store and the Google Play store charge users a fee for players looking to buy V-bucks on mobile devices which makes buying V-bucks 30% more expensive to buy than on other platforms.

Fortnite does have a new season starting in just a few weeks which could severely impact these Apple players if the game is not restored to the app store by then.

Watch GameXplain cover the full story below.