Fortnite Save the World unplayable on Mac after next patch

Battle Royale works for now; Epic sending refunds

Fortnite’s Save the World mode — the one that got the whole game started, remember? — will no longer be available to Mac players, another consequence of Epic Games and Apple’s brawl over access to the App Store.

A post from Epic Games on Friday morning said that Fortnite’s version 14.20 release, which has yet to roll out, will cause bugs for Mac users on version 13.40. With Apple now preventing Epic from patching its games on MacOS, that means Save the World will be broken once the next update rolls.

Epic Games is offering refunds for those who spent money on the game and played it at some point in the past year. That means purchases of the Save the World Founder’s or Starter Packs (plus their Upgrades), on an account that has played the mode sometime between Sept. 17, 2019 and today. Epic will also give refunds for any V-Bucks or Llamas bought on Mac since Sept. 17, 2019.

Better still, users don’t need to file a claim for the refunds; that will be automatically issued, and players’ accounts will still retain the V-Bucks and items they bought. That’s because, thanks to cross-platform progression, players can pick up on PlayStation 4, Windows PC, or Xbox One, if they have those platforms.Now for the bigger question: What about Fortnite Battle Royale? While that is still playable for Mac users on the 13.40 build, it also is no longer getting updates, for the same reasons, Epic says.

Apple kicked Fortnite out of its App Store (for MacOS and iOS) in August, after Epic implemented a V-bucks payment option that deliberately went around Apple’s in-app purchase systems — the ones which send Apple a 30 percent cut of the purchase. Epic responded with a lawsuit against Apple (and a video mocking it) calling its App Store practices unfair and a violation of U.S. law.

Three weeks ago, a federal judge ruled that Apple couldn’t terminate Epic’s access to development tools for its own Unreal Engine on Apple platforms. But the judge did not order Apple to reinstate Fortnite on the App Store.

Source: Polygon