Fortnite is no longer available to download from the App Store and Google Play following Epic’s latest update, which featured a workaround where you could pay less for V-bucks by avoiding the 30% cut both mobile game stores take whenever you make a purchase. Epic appears to have expected this reaction, as it has also launched a lawsuit against Apple.
“Apple has become what it once railed against: the behemoth seeking to control markets, block competition, and stifle innovation,” says the injunction. “Apple is bigger, more powerful, more entrenched, and more pernicious than the monopolists of yesteryear. At a market cap of nearly $2 trillion, Apple’s size and reach far exceeds that of any technology monopolist in history.”
The injunction refers to the 1984 Apple commercial, where the Macintosh is the revolutionary force breaking IBM’s monopoly over the computing market. Using an in-game Fornite parody of the famous advert, Epic suggests that Apple has become what it once vowed to stop – a monopoly, using anti-competitive restraints to choke the market.
If you’ve never seen the original Macintosh Super Bowl advert, you can find it on YouTube. We recommend watching the original first before you check out Fortnite’s parody below.
Epic Games has defied the App Store Monopoly. In retaliation, Apple is blocking Fortnite from a billion devices.
Visit https://t.co/K3S07w5uEk and join the fight to stop 2020 from becoming “1984” https://t.co/tpsiCW4gqK
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 13, 2020
Epic’s lawsuit explains that it’s not seeking financial compensation or favourable treatment by suing the multi-trillion-dollar conglomerate. Instead, Epic is seeking to relieve what they refer to as the ‘monopoly’ that Apple has over the iOS app distribution market, and the in-app payment processing market.
It’s not clear what the result of the injunction will be, or how long we will have to wait before we see Fortnite readily available on all smartphones again.
https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/2020/08/...ff-mobile/