Fortnite is one of the most popular video games being played right now. About 4.8 million people currently play Fortnite, where you can discover a fantasized world. There are actions to save the world from monsters or other teams before the whole world destructs. What makes this game much more enjoyable than others is the preference for multiplayer use. The fact that you can play with up to 100 other players in the Battle Royale has won over many online players.
Epic offered users the option to use their virtual currency within the app. Virtual currency is digital money that is used inside the app to buy different add-ons for the game. There are items such as outfits and power-ups that can be bought for characters in the game. When buying virtual currency, people would have to pay through the platform they are playing on. However, Epic Games made it so that when their users put money into the app, Epic would profit from the purchase and not Apple, Google, or any other platform that the app was installed on. This violated both Apple and Google’s company rules, which led them to ban Fortnite from their app stores. Epic Games replied to the ban by creating a video that went viral on social media, starting the hashtag “#FreeFortnite”.
The fight to get Fortnite back in app stores has been presented in court not only in the US, but also around the world. Epic Games filed a complaint against Apple in the United Kingdom. In November 2020, they took the legal fight to Australia as well.
As of September 2021, Apple won a near-total victory in the case, when a federal judge sided with Apple against Epic Games. The judge dismissed nine of Epic’s ten claims, including ones that would have required third-party app stores and payments. Apple also does not have to bring Fortnite back to the App Store and it can choose to terminate other Epic-related accounts. Epic announced that it does intend to repeal the judgment, meaning this case could continue to drag on.
The battle for Fortnite to appear back on the IOS platform seems to have no end, but this will most likely not reach a resolution any time soon. The fact that Apple has decided that they require app developers to give them a percentage of the money that is acquired by in-app purchases feels unfair since Apple is already receiving money from other departments, through other apps that they create, as well as advertisements via their app platform. There are many people who believe that Apple is within their right for profiting off the apps they promote by requiring Epic Games to make their in-app purchases open to Apple. However, the publicity that Epic Games developers have received due to the whole controversy has shown that many people support Epic Games’ decision to fight Apple and other platforms that only want to profit from a very popular product. Even though many people used the Apple app platform to play Fortnite, countless other platforms have made up for the loss of players through the IOS system. There are always other options available to the market to keep things fair.