Fortnite fans on Apple have something to look forward to. The game might come back to iPhones and iPads later this year – but there’s going to be a slight change in things. According to a BBC report, Apple users can play Fortnite through Nvidia’s cloud gaming service GeForce Now. GeForce Now has not been announced for iOS yet, but as per reports, the announcement should be made before the holiday season this year.
GeForce Now is supposed to run on Safari and not function as a standalone app since Apple’s restrictions on game streaming services make it difficult for them to function through the App Store.
The GeForce Now service allows you to stream your personal library of games to laptops, phones and other devices that can’t run them at all or run them well enough. The standard ‘Founders’ plan on GeForce Now costs $5 ( ₹370 approx) per month but you can also play for limited times for free if you aren’t willing to pay.
It’s almost like a hack of sorts, as The Verge explains, and is the result of Epic Games and Nvidia working around Apple’s restrictions on iPhone and iPad apps.
After a spat with Microsoft over the refusal to support the xCloud service, Apple said in a statement that developers can choose to reach iPhone and iPad users over the web via Safari and other browsers on the App Store. This accommodated the workaround that Nvidia and Epic Games are planning to use.
Apple also updates the developer guidelines with specific rules that cloud gaming services could follow to reach iOS players. These guidelines include individual game submission and review. While Microsoft called this compromise a “bad experience for consumers”, the company has since said that it plans to bring xCloud to iOS via Safari sometime next year.
The main point behind all this workaround is that Fortnite will be available to iOS players thanks to GeForce Now on Safari but it’s not going to be the smoothest experience. Fortnite fans will have to set up Nvidia’s streaming service on an iPhone.
It is possible that Fortnite might look better with higher-fidelity graphics because it is being streamed from a PC but there is “no guarantee it’ll run as responsively as the native Fortnite mobile app does, given that it’ll be inside of a browser and could face latency issues and other snags”.
That aside, it is something for Apple’s Fortnite fans to look forward to given they have not been able to play the game since it was banned in August.
