Apple blocks Fortnite from the App Store

[Marc]

It's nothing new that Apple and Google take a cut out of the earnings from published apps on their App Store and Google Play. What I didn't know was that Apple, for one, wasn't OK with forcing you to use their payment feature with the 30% fee.

I can see why they do this because if they don't, everyone can and they wouldn't earn any money. Although I think there are other fees involved when you want to develop for iOS devices and initially publish your app on the App Store anyway (or at least have a publishing App Store account).

Fortnite's Epic Games isn't happy about their 30% fee and they've ended up getting blocked:

Apple has blocked Fortnite from the App Store, removing everyone’s ability to install and update the game on iOS devices, while instructing Epic to “remove the ‘Epic direct payment’ feature”. Apple is keeping prices high so they can collect 30% of your payments, and is blocking Fortnite in order to prevent Epic from passing on the savings from direct payments to you!

Epic has taken legal action to end Apple’s anti-competitive restrictions on mobile device marketplaces.

What are your thoughts about all of this?

 

[Sunny_Meows]

mmmmmm Apple is hungry for some cOLd hAArD cAsH, well so is Epic Games, but that's not the joke. I definitely think that both parties are wrong in this scenario. The main issue here is that apple takes 30 percent of Fortnite: Battle Royale's in-app-purchases, so Epic Games decided to make payment go directly to Epic Games. Of course Apple will get mad, as Epic Games used a loophole through their agreement. So apple decided to ban Fortnite from the app store.I think that apple's best approach should have been to talk to epic about the issue respectfully and/or create a new agreement in which both parties are content with the money they're getting.

I'm pretty sure that when Epic decided to create the direct to epic games feature, and when apple decided to kick fortnite out of the app store, they were both thinking about money. I think that's wrong. It will only cause harm to apple and epic games. because of their greed, the app store will have less downloads, as fortnite is one of their, if not the best selling game/appliation on the Apple App Store and is one of the "hot new trends" of the decade. Thus, Apple gets less downloads. And due to inaccessibility (cuz kids and babies, which are the main audience of fortnite lololololol, don't know how to go to websites and download stuff from there) Fortnite gets less downloads too, and a decreasing playerbase and popularity added to the mix. They're both stuck.

The point is, they should've been thinking about the consumer, not about the money that comes from the consumer. It would be wise if they make the game accessible to everyone, anywhere, as well as get a fair share of the money flowing through fortnite, so that they get even more money. It's about entrepreneurship and stuff like that. They both made a foolish move, and blood is flowing out FAST. If they don't fix this issue, no one wins, and they both get less and less money overtime.

 

[28142]

Same thing has now happened with google play.

My main standpoint on this is one of the major reasons to why IAPs have to go through apple/google is that yes, they get a cut, capitalism, but also to make it secure and safe. There's security precautions and child proofing precauctions. If you start allowing everyone to make their own IAP systems you'll end up with some bad security problems and apps taking advantage and making confusing/manipulative systems to trick kids and bypass parent locks.

Epic shouldn't be allowed to win these lawsuits, it'll create a load more problems. They're also gross for continuing the whole "we're taking down the monopolies"... because they're doing that by trying to be a monopoly.

This was also fully planned, the short they put out was custom made, would have taken them a while. The lawsuit instantly happening means it was already pre-written and checked over which again, would have taken a while. It's just all scummy.

 

[Deepak]

#freefortnite

 

[Gram]

Epic agreed to Apple’s policies when they were trying to get a userbase, and now that they have one they’re attempting to weaponize that userbase to make some extra money.

Apple is greedy but at least they don’t try to hide their greed behind righteousness.