In its lawsuit against Epic Games, Apple accused the company of expecting special treatment for its game Fortnite. The head of Epic counters this on Twitter.
What happened? Since August 13, a full-blown battle has been raging between Epic Games and Apple as well as Google.
- Epic releases an update that allows players to buy the in-game currency V-Bucks directly from them, bypassing the 30% fees
- The V-Bucks are therefore cheaper and thus more attractive to players
- Subsequently, Apple and Google removed Fortnite from their app stores
- Epic then sued the two companies and attacked Apple in a video
- Apple then set Epic a deadline until August 28 to withdraw its lawsuit. Otherwise, all developer accounts of Epic developers will be closed and they will be cut off from all iOS and Mac development tools
What does Apple say? In the new documents submitted to the court, Apple sharply attacked its opponent. The company stated that Epic had approached them in June, requesting to present some new features.
One of these features would allow Epic to bypass Apple’s 30% fee. That means the money for microtransactions in Fortnite would flow directly to Epic.
Despite the fact that Apple rejected these features, Epic implemented these features on August 13 anyway. It was a “conscious decision to defraud Apple,” according to the document.
Apple’s depiction of the request for features suggests that Epic was expecting special treatment here. They wanted to gain advantages for their game Fortnite and thus make more money.
The head of Epic, Tim Sweeney, however, strongly disagrees.
What does the Epic CEO say? On his Twitter account, Sweeney made a post about Apple’s letter:
Apple’s statement is misleading. […] I specifically said in Epic’s request to the Apple execs, “We hope that Apple will make these options available to all iOS developers.
Apple’s statement is misleading. You can read my email in Apple’s filing, which is publicly available. I specifically said in Epic’s request to the Apple execs, “We hope that Apple will also make these options equally available to all iOS developers…” https://t.co/yRio08fPSy pic.twitter.com/HsqjApFQeo
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) August 21, 2020
He also published the screenshot of the email to the Apple leadership as proof of his statement.
In any case, Epic seems to want to maintain its current confrontational course. Yesterday, the company announced a new special anti-Apple tournament, which is set to take place tomorrow.
