The latest version of Fortnite could come back to iPhone. But it won‘t be in the App Store. Instead, a version of the Nvidia GeForce Now cloud gaming service is reportedly headed for Apple handsets and tablets, and that’ll bring a huge library of games… including Fortnite.
Apple banned this battle royale game from the iOS App Store in August in a dispute with Epic Games over revenue sharing. Since then, iPhone gamers who already had the software installed could still play it, but updates aren’t available. And cross-platform play isn’t possible.
Fortnite for iPhone thanks to Nvidia GeForce Now
But Nvidia has a version of its GeForce Now cloud gaming service that runs in the Safari browser on an iPhone, according to the BBC. If true, this will allow Apple’s mobile devices to run console-quality games because powerful remote servers handle the heavy lifting of running the software, and just stream the action to players with phones or tablets. GeForce Now for Mac is already available.
There won’t be much Apple can do about Fortnite back on iPhone because Nvidia’s service will be a web app. Apple put plenty of restrictions on cloud gaming services that want to appear in the App Store, but says in the App Store guidelines, “There is always the open Internet and web browser apps to reach all users outside of the App Store.”
That’s why other companies are going the same route. The Amazon Luna cloud gaming service is definitely coming to iPhone as a web app. And Microsoft reportedly is working on a web app version of Xbox Game Pass for iPhone.
