Plans are in place to allow users to play Epic Games' "Fortnite" on iOS and iPadOS again using Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud gaming service in Safari, the BBC has discovered.
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Nvidia has reportedly developed a version of its GeForce Now cloud gaming service that works in Safari on iOS and iPadOS, and Fortnite looks to be a key title on the platform for Apple devices that have lost the game due to the ongoing legal battle between Epic Games and Apple.
In August 2020, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store after Epic Games introduced a direct payment option in the app for its in-game currency, defying the App Store rules. In what appears to have been an orchestrated move, Epic Games promptly filed a lawsuit and a press campaign against Apple, accusing the company of anti-competitive behavior.
Using an online streaming service will allow Epic Games to circumvent Apple's ban on the game as an app. iPhone and iPad owners will be able to play Fortnite without charge through GeForce Now's free basic tier, though Nvidia limits these sessions to a duration of one hour.
Other games streaming services, such as Google Stadia, Microsoft xCloud, and Amazon Luna, have also laid out plans to access iOS users via Safari. However, none of these other platforms hosts Fortnite, leaving GeForce Now as the only way to play the game on iPhone or iPad.
Nvidia has not yet formally announced that GeForce will be coming to iOS, but it is expected to do so before the winter holidays. The service is already available for Mac.
After a California judge denied Epic Games' request for a preliminary injunction that would have required Apple to allow Fortnite back into the App Store, the court case between Apple and Epic Games is due to go to trial in May.
Top Rated Comments
Did you even read the article? They aren't "crawling back".They always come crawling back.
Can safari go fullscreen on ios for anything other than video?
I've already written 3D javascript based games for iOS. Latency isn't at all a problem. You can go fullscreen when you're landscape but in portrait the time and connection/battery/status icons will always be there (at least on pre-iPhone X). There's a few gestures you can't do because they trigger stuff in Safari. Possibly this can be mitigated by recommending players to use a 3rd party browser from the App Store.There will be latency issues !
Nothing can compete with a "native" app when it comes to Performance !
The biggest issue is that I don't think there's a good way to manage audio playback. Last I checked, everything is too high level and geared towards just playing one clip at a time, with some uncontrollable delays. There's nothing for positioning audio sources in 3D space (so dynamically changing the stereo mix) or otherwise layering multiple sounds together.
Because Geforce Now didn't work in Safari?Why didn't Epic do this in the first place?
Edit: And by Safari, I also meant other iOS browsers, which per App Store rules use the same Safari engine.