Epic takes a swing at Apple.
Epic takes a swing at Apple.
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App Store war: Apple, Google delete Fortnite after Epic Games adds direct payment (Updated)

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

Shots have been fired in what could be a gigantic App Store war. Apple deleted Fortnite after Epic Games deliberately violated its terms of service by adding a direct payment for the popular game, cutting Apple out of sales. Later this afternoon, Google also banned Fortnite from its Play store.

Epic Games announced its Fortnite “mega drop,” a permanent discount of up to 20% on V-bucks (Fortnite’s in-game currency) and other cash purchases in the game. It also introduced a new direct payment option. If you purchased V-bucks in the game through the iOS App Store or Google Play, the old price was in effect. But the discount is included under the new direct option.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.