Is Apple just going to let this GeForce Now loophole go?
One of the biggest takeaways from the recent Epic vs Apple ruling is that Apple is not letting Epic re-list Fortnite on the App Store anytime soon. However, because of a “technicality”, Nvidia and Epic found a way to make Fortnite available on iOS devices a little over a year after it was first removed. According to Nvidia and Epic’s announcement last Thursday, the companies are teaming up for a touch-friendly cloud version of Fortnite. The blog post adds that a closed, limited-time beta is scheduled to start next week and GeForce Now subscribers can all register to join. It will be interesting to see how Apple responds. Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store permanently back in 2020. At the time, Apple claimed that Epic Games had breached their agreement by letting players purchase V-Bucks without going through the App Store. This allowed Fortnite to bypass the App Store’s 30% cut on all in-app purchases, which, as per Apple’s explanations, is a clear violation of the terms and agreement. Even though Epic eventually “won” the lawsuit against Apple, the courts ruled in Apple’s favor as far as their right not to re-list Fortnite on the App Store. If it’s any consolation, this isn’t the first time a big company has circumvented Apple’s restrictive App Store rules. For example, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription bypasses Apple’s prohibitive rules against cloud-based game streaming apps to iOS devices and has done so since last year. Instead of releasing an app on Apple’s App Store, Microsoft instead lets Xbox Game Pass subscribers stream games on iOS devices using their browser. What Nvidia and Epic are doing right now is the same thing. Of course, streaming Fortnite is far from a long-term solution, and much less preferable than having a native app available on the App Store. Despite improvements in streaming technology in recent years, one can’t help but wonder just how much latency issues will factor in the overall gameplay experience of GeForce Now subscribers playing Fortnite on their iOS devices. Then again, this probably won’t stop Fortnite players from trying and having fun anyway.
