For those eagerly awaiting the chance to play Fortnite on their iPhone without streaming, the wait might soon be over, but only for EU residents.

Epic Games has announced through its Newsroom X account that a version of Fortnite has been submitted to Apple’s EU App Store for approval. The company aims to launch the game on iPhone within the next few months. The game has been absent from the App Store since 2020, following a dispute over platform fees that led to a significant legal battle with Apple.

While there’s no confirmation of Fortnite returning to the iPad, Epic Games has expressed interest in expanding to “other mobile app stores,” with a desire to engage with any store offering favorable terms to developers.

In related news, Epic Games has also submitted its Epic Games Store for iOS, which would enable direct sales of its games to Apple users, bypassing Apple’s store. Previously, Apple had restrictions on cloud streaming apps on its App Store due to auditing issues related to labeling and age ratings. Although cloud streaming differs from a new game marketplace, the Epic Games Store could present similar challenges and allow Epic to retain a larger share of its game revenues, a move Apple has historically opposed.

The introduction of additional game stores could benefit both developers and gamers by providing more revenue to creators and more choices to consumers. However, I am hesitant to download the Epic Games Store on my top-tier iPhone. The PC version of the store has been notably unreliable, difficult to navigate, and prone to crashes. While I may try it out of curiosity, if Fortnite is playable without it, through a native app downloaded directly from the web, that would be my preferred method.