Epic Games decided to take advantage of the changes in the legislation of South Korea and tried to return Fortnite to the local App Store. That’s just Apple did not agree — she did not see any reason to return the game.
On August 31, the South Korean authorities adopted an amendment to the Telecommunications Business Law. It prohibits mobile stores from making their own payment systems mandatory for developers. The ban is expected to take effect on September 15.
The initiative of the Korean government interested Epic Games. Recall that a year ago Apple removed its Fortnite battle royale from the App Store just because the developers allowed users to make purchases in the game bypassing the store payment system.
Epic Games said on Twitter last night that it had reached out to Apple in connection with the law change. The company asked to restore her accounts and re-release in the Korean store Fortnite. She noted that she is going to use both her own payment system and Apple’s system in the game.
Apple rejected the developers’ request.
We have already said that we will be glad to return Epic Games to the App Store if it agrees to play by the same rules as everyone else. At the moment there are no legal grounds to restore her account.
Epic Games has not commented on this response. Also, the developers did not say anything about the possible return of Fortnite to the Korean Google Play. Recall that there is no battle royale in this store also since last August.