Epic has said that its Games Store and flagship game Fortnite will be coming to iOS in Japan in “late 2025”.
The Fortnite maker’s move follows the introduction of new laws in Japan that force Apple to open itself up to increased competition, similar to what has happened in the EU and UK.
“A big win for mobile gamers and developers: the Japanese government and the Diet have passed a new law to open up mobile app stores!” Epic posted on X. “The Epic Games Store & Fortnite will be coming to iOS in Japan in late 2025”
Naturally, Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney also pitched in with some comment on X, adding: “Fortnite will now return to iOS in Japan and UK next year, and EU this year! This is the new free world, from the point of view of app developers and users. It’s a big club and we ain’t in it: The United States of America is still locked behind Apple’s Iron Curtain.”
The company has now said that it will be bringing its Epic Games Store and Fortnite to iOS in the EU this year, to the UK “in the second half of 2025” and now Japan next year. Epic Games also announced at GDC this year that it would also be bringing its store to Android sometime in 2024.
In the EU, the advent of the Digital Markets Act earlier this year has opened up the iOS App Store to alternative marketplaces in the region, leading to the launch of stores like Aptoide and AltStore.
But they have made little impact thus far, and are governed by what many consider to be some pretty egregious Runtime Fee-style Apple guidelines.
Epic has also been fighting Google in the US courts, and after a US jury decided that Google’s Play Store practices were illegal, Epic was invited to offer some solutions. It proposed that Google should allow customers to “download apps from wherever they choose without interference, whether it’s from the Google Play Store, a third party app store, another app or the web.”
“Google can’t use scare screens and dire warnings that deter consumers from downloading apps from the internet to their phones,” Epic continued. “Consumers should be able to directly download apps on their mobile devices just like they can on their computer.”
Meanwhile, Epic Games boss Sweeney has also been having a pop at Apple about its recent decision to reject PC emulator UTM SE from sale on its App Store, calling the move “super gross”.
“Yikes! Apple has stepped in again to dictate what apps competing stores are allowed to carry,” he posted on X. “They arbitrarily decided PC emulators are banned, likely because it would open up a vast new competitive landscape where upstarts could gain a foothold. Super gross of Apple.”
Apple had previously allowed the sale of the Nintendo-focused Delta emulator, which was downloaded an estimated 3m times just four days after launch.
Delta later hit 7m installs around two weeks after launch, and we asked some legal experts about why Nintendo hadn’t challenged Apple to remove the app.
