The latest battle to be waged in Fortnite is against Apple. The popular battle royale game is officially being used in a fight between Epic Games and Apple over the use of the company’s pay services for in-app purchases.
👷♀️🛠️ 🛒
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 13, 2020
Thursday brought word that Apple had banned Fortnite from the app store hours after Epic allowed a payment method for purchases in the game that didn’t use Apple’s mandated Apple Pay method.
wow, Epic Games has added its own payments scheme to Fortnite on iOS. It bypasses Apple's IAP system and it's cheaper. Not sure how Epic is able to do this, but it's good news for Fortnite fans! https://t.co/wChrUiQeJs pic.twitter.com/FaQEzOICWM
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 13, 2020
The issue at heart here is that Apple requires apps used on its iPhone and other devices to use the Apple App store, which takes a considerable cut of purchases made through it. Epic’s beef is one others have bristled at in the past, but few companies have the considerable resources to fight it — mainly, using its own payment service to offer better prices to customers, until it gets banned.
On Thursday afternoon, Fortnite teased a “Ninteen Eightyfortnite” event that many quickly tied to the news that Epic had circumvented Apple Pay and the game was banned from Apple’s app store.
Fortnite Party Royale will premiere a new short: Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite. Join us at 4PM ET. pic.twitter.com/BWvndK3gDt
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 13, 2020
The event was a reference to Apple’s infamous 1984-themed commercial for the Macintosh computer, widely regarded as one of the most influential ads of all time.
Fortnite‘s Twitter account soon shared a legal filing Epic had made against Apple and their store rules.
Epic Games has filed legal papers in response to Apple, read more here: https://t.co/c4sgvxQUvb
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 13, 2020
And then the event itself started which was, indeed, a parody of the 1984 commercial using a Fortnite character in the place of the woman running to the screen to smash it with a unicorn-themed hammer throw.
https://twitter.com/FortniteBattle/status/1294004851249119247
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Apple responded on Thursday with a statement of its own.
“Epic has had apps on the App Store for a decade, and have benefited from the App Store ecosystem — including its tools, testing, and distribution that Apple provides to all developers. Epic agreed to the App Store terms and guidelines freely and we’re glad they’ve built such a successful business on the App Store. The fact that their business interests now lead them to push for a special arrangement does not change the fact that these guidelines create a level playing field for all developers and make the store safe for all users.”
This beef seems far from settled, and Epic and its CEO have escalated what was a war of words with some pretty clear actions. Whether Apple relents or finds a way to work this out is unclear right now, but Apple will miss out on a lot of V Bucks profits while they fight it out.