Thursday, September 23, 2021
Success game not in the App Store
Apple refuses “Fortnite” the return
Bad news for “Fortnite” fans with iPhone: The popular multiplayer game is not returning to the App Store for the time being. After a partial success of the developer company Epic Games against Apple in court, the group wants to wait until the judgment is final. That could take years, however.
Apple does not want the popular online game “Fortnite” to return to its app store until the legal dispute with the developer Epic Games is completely over. The iPhone company declined a request to resume, according to a letter published by Epic boss Tim Sweeney. Apple referred, among other things, to the previous “duplicitous” behavior of Epic.
In the dispute between Apple and Epic, which has been going on for over a year, the first judgment was given ten days ago. A judge in California ruled, among other things, that Apple was entitled to ban Epic and “Fortnite” from the App Store. Epic wanted to enforce the right to operate its own app store on the iPhone and to be able to sell digital content to “Fortnite” players past Apple. After Apple insisted on its rules, Epic resorted to a trick. The game company secretly built software code into the app, thanks to which users could buy “Fortnite” items directly from Epic without commissions to Apple. After the feature was activated, Apple threw “Fortnite” from the App Store. Epic complained against it.
In her judgment, the judge touched neither the Apple commission of 15 to 30 percent for sales of digital goods, nor that the in-house app store is the only platform for downloading apps on the iPhone. However, she decided that in the future Apple should no longer prohibit developers from advising users of ways to buy the items outside the app store at a lower price. Epic appealed the verdict.
Epic boss indignant about decision
At the same time, Sweeney promised in an email to Apple that Epic would adhere to the rules that apply to all developers in the future. After the application was rejected, he rumbled on Twitter “Apple lied”. He referred to earlier statements by the iPhone group that Epic would be welcomed back if the conditions were met.
In their letter to Epic, however, the Apple lawyers also pointed out that Sweeney had claimed after the verdict that they would not give up their own purchasing system in order to get back to the App Store. Apple will only consider further return requests when the judge’s judgment is final and can no longer be appealed. This process could take five years, criticized Sweeney. There was initially no further comment from Apple.