Apple plans to keep the game “Fortnite” off of its App Store until appeals are exhausted in its legal fight with Epic Games, the maker of the battle-royale game.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
Apple sent a letter to Epic Tuesday saying that it “will not consider any further requests for reinstatement until the district court’s judgment becomes final and nonappealable.” The letter, sent to Epic’s lawyers from a firm representing Apple, was published on Twitter by Epic Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney. That process could take five years, he said.
MacDailyNews Take: Hey, Epic Games, you’re the ones who wanted to play with fire, after all. Don’t whine that you’re getting burned.
Epic sued Apple in August 2020 after the iPhone maker removed Fortnite from its App Store, citing a workaround that circumvented Apple’s commission on purchases. The battle came to a head this month, with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers mostly siding with Apple — though she said the company should allow app developers to point users to outside payment systems. The ruling doesn’t take effect until early December, and Epic has already said it will appeal…
While the judge’s ruling clearly states that Apple can no longer ban developers from pointing users to the web to complete transactions — bypassing the in-app-purchase system — the ruling doesn’t state outright that Apple cannot collect its commissions. That has led some observers to believe that Apple could still take its cut of revenue via other means.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, as we’ve previously suggested:
If developers like Epic Games want to advertise lower prices using Apple’s App Store, Apple should simply charge an in-store advertising fee. We suggest it be 15% for developers making under $1 million per year and 30% for those making $1 million or more annually. 🙂
Here’s Sweeney’s tweet with the response from Apple’s lawyers:
Late last night, Apple informed Epic that Fortnite will be blacklisted from the Apple ecosystem until the exhaustion of all court appeals, which could be as long as a 5-year process. pic.twitter.com/QCD7wogJef
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 22, 2021
The legal appeals process and future proceedings will continue for years and years and years all the while Epic will sit on the App Store sidelines, Fortnite as we know it could even possibly be somewhat irrelevant by the time their developers account is reactivated, meanwhile Apple will simply find other revenue streams to compensate for this blip on the radar – how do you like them Apples Tim Sweeney LOL. 🍎
BTW, MacDailyNews comments are brilliantly on point.
Mean spirited, hyper political, communist sympathizing, anti-American, vindictive, greedy, secretive, abusive to snowflake employees… This is Cook’s Apple.
Seriously? You don’t think SJ wouldn’t have gone after them with all he had?
Get real.
“While the judge’s ruling clearly states that Apple can no longer ban developers from pointing users to the web to complete transactions — bypassing the in-app-purchase system — the ruling doesn’t state outright that Apple cannot collect its commissions. That has led some observers to believe that Apple could still take its cut of revenue via other means.”
Apple will have to tread lightly should they try to take a cut from web transactions resulting from redirecting from within Apps. At most they could get away IMO is charging the same as what they would get from a single ‘ad view click thru’. Anything more and Apple could face a full boycott by all major streaming services. Imagine all iOS devices having no access at all to Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, etc. except through Safari as the ‘hosting app’.
Yay! Apple’s goes thermonuclear with Epic Games. That’s what Epic gets for ruining the App Store. Never bite the hand that feeds you or you no longer get fed.
Yea Yes Yes!
This whole eco system was invented by Apple Epic can go play in another store!
Good for apple. this was a bogus case. Epic lost everything claiming apple was violating antitrust laws, it wasn’t. Serves them right.
Good for apple. screw epic. They wrongly tried to make out apple to be an antitrust monopolist and lost on all those counts. So yea, screw epic. They deserve worse.