This could take years, and in the meantime, I think that being off iOS drastically hurts Fortnite’s long term ambitions of becoming the foundation of the Metaverse, as how can you do that and effectively not exist on mobile? Even if Epic may be “right,” they have a long, long way to go for that to manifest in any substantive action against Apple. And from the sound of everything we’ve heard regarding this case so far, it seems like those making these rulings seem pretty skeptical of their arguments.Īpple has repeatedly said that Fortnite could come back to the app store tomorrow if they simply abided by their existing policies, but that would require Tim Sweeney and Epic to “bend the knee” so to speak, and it’s hard to see that happening.īut it’s also hard to see Epic’s dream ending for this, some sort of regulation that does…what exactly? Reduces Apple’s cut to a lower level? Forces them to allow the Epic Games Store on iOS? All of that seems extremely unlikely in the face of a wider market where the 30% cut is standard. But they literally cannot offer that on Apple devices because of the closed ecosystem.īut legally, I think we’re seeing how perilous this argument is, and just how much Epic has to prove in order to get the courts to side with them over Apple. Over on PC, Epic’s tactic of making their own store with a more generous revenue cut for developers than Steam allowed them to practice what they preach. They also have to convince the court that Apple is acting “monopolistically” and even though these numbers are big, losing 10% of your active players because of an app store ban does not exactly show that there aren’t alternative platforms for your game to succeed on if you want to distribute elsewhere.Īs ever, I remain convinced that Epic is technically “right” here, that Apple does have an oppressive monopoly on mobile, and the entire mobile ecosystem needs to be opened up to be more like PC with competing stores. Then, they have to convince the court that the 30% cut is oppressive and unjustified when it’s industry standard across Apple, Google, Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and a ton of other similar storefronts. And yet the longer this goes on, the more of an uphill battle this seems like it’s going to be for Epic who has to convince the courts about the merits of their situation on a number of fronts.įirst, they seem to be getting dinged for their “ploy” of getting Apple to ban them from the store by deliberately breaking the rules to circumvent the 30% cut. Notably, teen girls are more likely than boys to say they have bonded with a sibling by playing Fortnite.Both Apple and Epic are touting victories from this last ruling, Apple saying they’re grateful the court recognizes that Epic deliberately broke its rules, Epic saying they’re grateful the court is stopping action against Unreal.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |