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