San Francisco, Aug 27: Epic Games has confirmed that the upcoming season of Fortnite will not be available to players on iPhones, iPads or Mac due to the company's legal battle with Apple. Fortnite was removed from the Apple App Store on August 13 for adding an in-app payment system in violation of the App Store rules.

"Apple is blocking Fortnite updates and new installs on the App Store and has said they will terminate our ability to develop Fortnite for Apple devices," Epic Games said in a blog post on Wednesday. "As a result, Fortnite's newly released Chapter 2 - Season 4 update (v14.00), will not release on iOS and macOS on August 27".

A US judge ruled earlier this week ruled that Apple cannot delete the developer account of Epic Games that support open and real-time 3D creation platform Unreal Engine but can keep the Fortnite game away from App Store for violating its policies. She decided that Apple will not be required to bring the banned Fortnite game back to the App Store. Apple welcomed the decision on the removal of Fortnite game, saying "it's ready to welcome Fortnite back if Epic Games decides to remove the direct payment option and return to the status quo".

"We agree with Judge Gonzalez-Rogers that 'the sensible way to proceed' is for Epic to comply with the App Store guidelines and continue to operate while the case proceeds".

Launched in 2017, Fortnite features a battle royale format where 100 players compete to survive as the last player standing on a remote island. The popular game has amassed a huge following of 350 million players, and is available on multiple platforms.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 27, 2020 05:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).