GYGO Mobile Games: A Fortnight’s Worth of Fortnite News

It’s time for another Wednesday and another roundup of all the mobile gaming news! I was sick for two weeks, then went on vacation, and am now sick again, so my game time has been surprisingly limited. I did recently fire up Tropico 4 for reasons unknown last night, and would you believe it? Still fun! What a fantasy it is to have/be a benevolent leader who provides free healthcare, education, housing, and food for her people.

Though Israel claims to have relaxed the blockade preventing aid from entering the Gaza strip, it is still effectively in place. Al Jazeera has a useful and informative timeline of how Israel’s efforts are causing starvation in Gaza, with at least 57 people having starved to death as of May 2025, and Israel’s military shooting at and near people trying to get food from aid stations. The situation in Gaza has been horrific since long before October 7, 2023, but the current situation, in which 2.1 million people face starvation due to the blockade and insufficient food supply, is uniquely dire. In addition to the usual recommendations of donating to one of the many crowdfunding campaigns at GazaFunds.com, donating to Crips for eSims for Gaza, and pursuing the numerous digital actions recommended in Zainabb Hull’s Crips for Palestine newsletter, consider taking some time this week (and every week) to call your representatives in Congress, your Member of Parliament, or whoever best represents you in your government to demand a true end to Israel’s blockade. ActionNetwork has a letter-writing campaign you can participate in for residents of the US, but don’t hesitate to write a letter by hand, call, fax, and email in addition to participating in the existing campaign. The more they hear, the better.

Fortnite’s App Store Roller-Coaster

I’m going to lay this month’s Fortnite/App Store saga out for you chronologically because as a wise sage once said, everything happens so much.

On May 9, Epic Games resubmitted Fortnite for inclusion on iOS’s App Store, following a ruling that Apple had been in contempt of a court injunction from 2021. Apple agreed to comply with the ruling.
With the legal battle having resolved enough to bring Epic Games’ Fortnite back to the iOS store, we thought we’d be seeing the game available soon. Except, as Tim Sweeney pointed out on X on May 15, six days after the game was resubmitted, there were plenty of Fortnite clones, which are full of ads, available on the App Store while Fortnite itself was not.
Further, Apple appeared to be selling ads for the word “Fortnite,” meaning they are trying to drive traffic to the App Store from people searching for news of the game’s return. However, as both Sweeney and PC Guide point out, this isn’t a new tactic, nor is it exclusively used to target “Fortnite.”
Sweeney repeatedly tweeted at Apple to ask why the game hadn’t been reinstated yet, with the official Fortnite account eventually tweeting, “Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission” on May 16.
PocketGamer reported on May 19 that Epic filed a new motion accusing Apple of violating the court injunction again, as the game had not yet been reinstated ten days after submission despite Apple’s own developer website stating that 90% of submissions are reviewed within 24 hours. According to PocketGamer, Apple reportedly stated it “won’t review or approve Fortnite’s app submission for the US App Store until the Ninth Circuit Court rules on its pending request for a partial stay of the new injunction,” but PocketGamer was not clear on the date of that statement.
PocketGamer’s report claims that Apple stated that Epic submitted Fortnite to the US App Store using the Epic Games Sweden account, which is why it was denied.
But then, May 21, Fortnite was added back to the iOS App Store for the first time in five years. Following the motion from Epic Games, a US judge asked Apple why it felt it “had the legal authority to ignore the court’s order” and the issue was swiftly addressed. Epic and Apple filed a joint notice stating that the companies had resolved all issues related to Epic’s filing on the 16th.

But that’s not all! Though Epic Games may often seem like the hero in the struggle against Apple’s restrictive App Store, they are still very much a major corporation with a history of union busting; major layoffs despite a healthy $5.7 billion net worth for Tim Sweeney (which is not the same as a salary, but let’s be honest, he’s doing fine); and the company having to pay out $245 million for using “dark patterns” to encourage players, including children, to make unintended in-game purchases.

So, on top of the Fortnite in the App Store drama, the latest controversy: AI Darth Vader. I don’t know who asked for this, but Epic Games certainly delivered, creating a Google AI-powered conversational Darth Vader that responds to voice and text chat. The bot uses voice data based on original voice actor James Earl Jones’ performance, which Epic Games said was done with the permission of Jones’ family. Naturally, Fortnite users immediately began pushing the limits of the system—within an hour and a half, AI Darth Vader was already saying “fuck.” 40 minutes later, he was dropping homophobic slurs. Though cussing and homophobic slurs are, unfortunately, part and parcel of the online gaming space (which is not to say they should be, only that they are), hearing a dead actor’s voice speak them without his express consent is… ghoulish? Gross? Disgusting?

Epic added parental controls that allowed parents to restrict children from interacting with AI Darth Vader, and also encouraged players to report inappropriate chat. Around four hours after the bot was launched, Epic stated that they had published a hotfix and it shouldn’t happen again.

But wait, there’s more! SAG-AFTRA has filed an unfair labor complaint against Epic. Though the organization stated that they respected the right of members and estates’ wishes to use AI, they felt it was necessary to protect bargaining rights for union members whose work might be affected by AI, including those who who had previously voiced Darth Vader in video games. As The Verge explains, SAG-AFTRA’s complaint is less that the Jones estate approved of Epic recreating Jones’ voice with AI, and more that Epic did not sit down with SAG-AFTRA to discuss terms or alternatives.

In less depressing Fortnite news, TheaterRoyale is a new group of Twitch streamers performing various plays right inside of Fortnite while also trying to survive. Fans can interact with the streams as they perform, helping or hindering their attempt to finish a play before they lose.

Let’s Not Leave Roblox Out, They’re Weird Too

In other GYGO Mobile mainstay news, Roblox is still weird! A small tangent before I get on with it: my day job is in e-commerce, and the company I work for uses Shopify as their sales platform, so I keep up to date on what’s going on with new features. Imagine my surprise this month when the day job and nights-and-weekends job intersected with Shopify’s announcement that they were partnering with Roblox to offer real products for sale inside the virtual world of the game. Fenty Beauty started it all with a new shoppable… shop inside of the game, which allows players to pick out a product—including a lip shade only available in Roblox—and have it shipped directly to their home, as well as a digital version to display, I suppose. Weird! I’m not about to start slinging comics on Roblox (least of all because I just don’t really think the audience for my employer’s work is hanging out on Roblox), but it sure is… interesting.

In addition, Crossplay’s Patrick Klepek interviewed some of the creators behind Dress to Impress, the highly regarded fashion “experience” built within Roblox. The game has a team of some 30 developers, including people who came in as fans of the game through YouTube and other means.

In other news…

Texas has passed a new law requiring age checks for users of both Apple and Google’s app stores. Google and Android both oppose the measure, with an Apple spokesperson citing concerns over requiring users to hand over personal information.

Final Fantasy XIV is now officially coming to mobile devices in June, beginning with China.

My beloathed Fusebox Games is partnering with Big Brother to bring, you guessed it, Big Brother: The Game to life. I want it to to be good! I want it to be fun! I am not hopeful.

Netflix is making a Clash of Clans show. Why not? Big Brother game, Clash of Clans show.

I know I put a bunch of bad news about Fortnite up above, but these videos of people with Sabrina Carpenter skins meeting up and dancing together are hilarious to me, especially when they turn into violence.

Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.