The legal battle between Apple and Epic Games isn’t looking too good for the Fortnite-maker, which might be regretting its seemingly contrived end run around Apple’s App Store rules.
Rich Duprey for The Motley Fool:
The judge hearing the case recently said Fortnite can be kept off the App Store until a trial commences next summer, and even then the chance of getting reinstated looks bleak…
U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said Apple had the right to keep Fortnite off the platform and told the game maker its “predicament appears of its own making.”
She also upbraided Epic. When the game maker tried to minimize Apple’s argument that the fee system helped create an ecosystem safe from security risks and malware by saying Epic was a longtime participant on the platform and posed no security threat, CNN reports, the judge was adamant.
She reportedly indicated Epic knew it was violating its agreement with Apple when it created the payment workaround. “You did something, you lied about it by omission, by not being forthcoming,” she said. “That’s the security issue. That’s the security issue!”
The harsh commentary does not bode well for Epic when the case finally goes to trial, where Gonzalez Rogers will be presiding, and in the meantime, Epic will continue to bleed… one estimate suggests Epic is losing almost $27 million a month due to the ban. All for a position that seemingly has little chance of prevailing.
MacDailyNews Take: Let it bleed.
Epic games, indeed.
When the judge is calling you a liar and throwing out your arguments left and right, you don’t have a case.
The reason for this sham is that Fortnite was dying because it was a passing fad and Epic was on the slide down, desperate to boost their biggest moneymaker in whatever way possible. One dead giveaway: Epic’s big “protest” video (“1984” parody) was ready to go immediately.
The epic whiners at Epic Games want all of the benefits afforded to them by Apple’s App Store for free. How much did it cost developers to have their applications burned onto CDs, boxed, shipped, and displayed on store shelves prior to Apple remaking the world for the better for umpteenth time? — MacDailyNews, September 29, 2020
PUBG is better anyway!
All true but 30% is still robbery.
And you base that on what?
Robbery or not 30% the going rate so Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are robbing developers with that 30% cut. Apple isn’t doing anything illegal here and Epic Games knew the terms which they agreed to 10 years ago and, which has been the same since 2008,
How much do you think Staples or Best Buy takes of the sales price of Quickbooks? It’s a lot higher than 30%. Do you see Intuit whining that they should be allowed to sell their product at no cost in these stores?
If you rent an apartment and sign a lease for thousand dollars a month that’s the rate you agreed to pay and the rate that you agreed the apartment was worth. Six months or a year or 10 years down the road you can’t say that’s too much. You agreed to the rate, you agreed that it was fair, you signed the lease, and you benefited from all of the features the lease offers, including security. Apple charges a rate. You may think it is too high or you may think it is too low but if you sign the agreement with that rate on it you have agreed that at least at that time, that rate was fine. Epic has no case here. Nor does anyone else who signed the agreement to be in the App Store and enjoy all the benefits the App Store provides. Sign the paper? Pay the piper.
I thought it was a poke at Epic when Apple featured League of Legends in the last event. Pretty funny.
Oh yeah!! That was hilarious!