Epic Games announced on Tuesday that it is adding gifting functionality to its popular Fortnite game for the 2018 holiday season. Unfortunately, iOS players are left out of the gift giving fun, due to the iOS App Store’s lack of support for gifting in-app purchases.
We know that many of you have been eagerly awaiting a gifting feature and today we’re excited to announce that for a limited time we’ll be offering it with the release of our 6.31 update! This initial gifting period will last one week after the release of the update.
Please note, gifting is not available on iOS devices because Apple’s policies prohibit it.
Non-iOS players will see a new “Buy As A Gift” option, allowing them to buy in-game upgrades and send them as gifts to other players, who can then redeem them into their own account.
When you go into the Item Shop and choose an item to purchase, you will now be presented with two options: one saying “Purchase Items” and another saying “Buy As A Gift”.
While Epic Games says that gifting is not available on iOS devices “because Apple’s policies prohibit it,” Apple doesn’t actually prohibit in-app purchase gifting in iOS apps, but it simply doesn’t support it.
As noted by 9to5Mac, those that wish to aid their favorite iOS-based Fortnite player can purchase iTunes and App Store Gift Cards and gift those to the player. Amazon currently offers a $100 iTunes card for $85 when you apply the code: ITUNES15 at checkout.
The Fortnite update does contain a few goodies for iOS players though, as the update includes a pair of changes that do apply to the iOS version of the game:
EVENTS- Tournaments can be found inside of the new Events tab available in game. This tab will host a variety of online competitions which are open to everyone. Jump in and explore!
NEW MOUNTED TURRET – Drop and operate the Mounted Turret trap and fire with unlimited ammo but watch out for the overheating! Try it out in the Food Fight LTM!
Fortnite for iOS is free, and is available for iPad and iPhone devices in the App Store. [GET IT HERE]