Epic Games wants to reinstate Fortnite app on App Store, its iOS players drop by 60 percent

Fortnite-maker Epic Games wants to bring back the gaming app on Apple App Store. On Friday, Epic Games filed a motion in the court asking for a preliminary injunction against Apple, which would force it to list Fortnite, back on the App Store. As per the injunction brief over 116 million gamers have played Fortnite on iOS, making it the game’s biggest platform, larger than its player base on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, PC or Android. Epic Games says that its “daily active users on iOS have declined by over 60% since Fortnite’s removal from the App Store.” [caption id=“attachment_8723011” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  Fortnite on iOS[/caption] Epic says it is worried that it “may never see these users again” and that its Fortnite community has been “torn apart.” The next hearing for this case is scheduled for 28 September. However, Epic Games is hoping that Fortnite is put back up on the App Store until a verdict is reached. (Also read:  Epic Games' war on Apple, Google may ease entry of new players in gaming industry ) Last last month, the court had said that Apple did not have to put the Fortnite app back on the store as Epic Games failed to prove that Apple’s policy did any harm and that the company “strategically chose to breach its agreements with Apple.” In August, Epic Games said that it was  **suing Apple and Google**  after the tech giants dropped its popular video game app from their app stores for introducing a direct payment plan that bypasses their platforms.

Apple and Google both take a 30 percent cut from in-app revenue purchases in games, which has long been a sore spot with developers. Fortnite is free, but users can pay for in-game accouterments like weapons and skins. Its developer, Epic Games, said in a  blog post that it was introducing Epic Direct payments, a direct payment plan for Apple’s iOS and Google Play. Epic said the system is the same payment system it already uses to process payments on PC and Mac computers and Android phones.