The losers in Epic Games massive spat with Apple (and to a lesser extent, Google) were always the Fortnite players. But where there's a will, there's a way, and iPhone players especially can rejoice: Fortnite is back as a proper mobile game with touch controls. All thanks to a collaboration between Epic Games and NVIDIA on the GeForce Now cloud gaming platform.

It's not quite the same as having a local version, but it's the next best thing in the circumstances. The partnership was revealed some time ago and has been in testing with selected players. It has been a resounding success but today, the gates are open and all players can enjoy touch controls in Fortnite.

The full launch — including the removal of the waitlist — follows a successful beta period in which more than 500,000 participants streamed over 4 million sessions to hundreds of mobile device types.

The testing period has enabled the team to optimize the on-screen controls so that the gameplay feels native, and the results speak for themselves. I've been playing it for a short time prior to the general release and there's nothing to suggest you're not just playing on your phone. I played more Fortnite on iPhone than I care to admit when it first launched and the controls on GeForce Now feel very similar and just as responsive.

It goes much deeper than just slapping a few buttons on the screen. There are multiple modes to choose from, including an auto-fire so you just have to point and the game will fire the weapons for you. It makes Fortnite on GeForce Now accessible to all skill levels. In-game menus and items you simply tap on as you would do in a native version. The performance is outstanding, too. I'm on the RTX 3080 tier and Fortnite looks so much better than the mobile version, and with a compatible Android device, 120 FPS streaming is available on this top tier.

Android players have, of course, been able to get the game directly from Epic Games. But iPhone players need to rely on the cloud, with this general release from NVIDIA following Microsoft adding Fortnite to the Xbox Cloud Streaming library recently. The downside is the need for a decent connection, and unless you're lucky enough to have huge amounts of fast mobile data, Fortnite on the bus might still not happen. But this aside, it's essentially identical to the mobile version, and you don't need to have a paid account to play Fortnite on GeForce Now, either.

As an added bonus, those who played during the beta period are being given three days of priority access as a small token of appreciation. For those already on paid tiers, three days of free access will be applied to your account, extending your billing period to suit. All beta players will be contacted with further details but will be able to claim through the GeForce Now redemption portal.

Five new titles joining GeForce Now

In addition to the hot Fortnite news, NVIDIA is also adding five further new titles to the GeForce Now library this week from both Steam and Epic Games. Here's what we're getting:

• DEADCRAFT (New release on Steam)
• Old World (New release on Steam)
• Vampire: The Masquerade Swansong (New release on Epic Games Store)
• Dolmen (New Release on Steam, May 20)
• Trigon: Space Story (Epic Games Store)

If you already own any of these titles they'll automatically find their way into your account. If not, head on into the settings and re-sync to make them appear.