The dispute between Epic Games and Apple regarding the online shooter Fortnite is entering its next round. Epic wants to legally force Apple to reinstate the game in the App Store, as player numbers are massively dropping.
What is going on? After Epic Games had directly enabled the purchase of the in-game currency V-Bucks through an update to circumvent Apple’s App Store fees, Apple removed Fortnite from the store. Google followed suit.
Subsequently, Epic Games sued Apple and also Google. This led to a dispute in which Apple threatened to close all developer accounts of Epic developers and eventually did so. This cut off the developers from iOS and Mac tools, which had catastrophic consequences for games using the Unreal Engine. Although a court ruled that Apple had to restore access, Fortnite is still excluded from the App Store.
The reason is that Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers did not believe that Epic Games suffered greater damage and because, in her opinion, the company deliberately violated Apple’s guidelines.
However, Apple even offered Epic Games to reinstate the game in the store (via macrumors) if the V-Bucks of the iOS version were sold exclusively through it. But Epic insists on being able to offer the in-game currency directly. The company wants to save the 30% fee to Apple on each sale. According to Epic, this is about fairness and better conditions for game developers.
Apple is very important for Fortnite
What does Epic Games demand now? Epic Games wants to legally force Apple to reinstate Fortnite in the App Store, as the company claims the ban has serious consequences.
A new letter to the court states:
The number of daily active users on iOS has decreased by over 60% since the removal of Fortnite from the App Store.
According to Epic, iOS is the largest platform for Fortnite with 116 million registered users. Allegedly, almost a third of the 350 million registered Fortnite users use Apple’s App Store.
And these 116 million users are supposed to only play on iOS and not use any other platform. Therefore, the company fears that it has completely lost these players.
Epic’s plans have been disrupted: Epic Games further explains that the future plans for Fortnite have now been massively disrupted by Apple’s actions. The company still has big plans for the online shooter.
The removal of Fortnite from iOS also hinders an important initiative: the development of Fortnite into a full-fledged ‘metaverse’, a versatile, enduring, interactive virtual space. Such damage to Epic’s flagship app cannot be quantified.
The success of developing Fortnite into a metaverse depends on having a large user base, which makes the interaction in the metaverse a better experience for potential new users.
What does this mean? According to Epic, Fortnite is planned to become much more than just a game in the future. A kind of virtual world is being created in which users can interact with each other. Playing is just a part of it.
There should be more events like concerts or movies, and players will get a virtual space to meet and communicate with each other. However, this only works with as many users as possible. If so many players are lost due to Apple’s ban, these big plans could be at risk.
How the court will respond to Epic Games’ letter is still unknown.
You can read more details about the entire situation here: This is behind Fortnite 1984, the attack on Apple and #FreeFortnite.
