Apple vs. Epic Games, the Fortnite Lawsuit

If you’re familiar with the gaming world, you most probably have encountered Fortnite. For a couple of months now; however, this app has failed to appear in Apple’s app store, leaving many users disappointed. 

Apple removed Fortnite from its app store after the app’s developers (Epic Games) introduced in-app payments that bypass Apple’s standard 30% fee. This move was violating Apple’s guidelines for all developers that have their apps in the app store. However, Epic Games says the 30% fee that Apple takes from developers is not fair and is anti-competitive. 

The disagreements between Apple and Epic Games even led to a lawsuit whose judgment will be determined in May next year, 2021. Epic Games accuses Apple of being anti-competitive by levying huge fees on developers that have apps in the App store. Several other developers share Epic Games’ view, and some of them have also sued Apple; however, Epic Games is the biggest one yet.

As the case between these two companies progressed, Epic Games was advised to follow Apple’s guidelines until the court ruled in favor of either party. However, Epic Games chose to do otherwise, which led to Apple removing their app from the app store. Apple accuses Epic Games of wanting a free ride by setting its terms on a platform they didn’t build. 

Fortnite has had over 116 million users on iOS devices ever since it first launched on the App Store. Being on this platform has been one of the reasons this company became a multibillion-dollar business. Now that it is not on any iOS devices, the company has lost a lot of possible revenue in the last few months. 

Thankfully, Fortnite is making a comeback. The app is now returning to the iOS devices, not through the app store but the browser. GeForce has built a cloud gaming platform that works within browsers on the different pc and mobile operating systems. This means iOS users will be able to play Fortnite through their Safari browser or any other browser they use on their iPhones. 

People have latency while playing the game, especially for older iPhones that don’t support 5G. Nvidia has not officially communicated when and if it will bring Fortnite to iOS devices. However, many expect it to be among the games being added since playing Fortnite in the browser doesn’t violate Apple’s policies.