Last week, Apple sent waves through the Fortnite community by abruptly ending their partnership with publisher and developer Epic Games, and also kicking Fortnite off of the iOS store. The Apple vs Epic debate has continued into this week as well as CEO Tim Sweeney took another crack at the company.
The reason behind the split to begin with is because Epic added a “direct payment” mechanism to Fortnite, which ended up violating the profit-sharing rules that Apple has every publisher and developer sign in order to allow their games on iOS platforms.
Along with many Fortnite fans not being happy, Epic isn’t happy either, and has made it known by starting a “#FreeFortnite” hashtag, holding a tournament for that hashtag, published an anti-Apple ad that looked like it belonged in the 1984 book, and also releasing a sizable amount of anti-Apple cosmetics on their store.
In the midst of the Apple vs Epic debate, Tim Sweeney’s message on Twitter brought a sizable amount of other shifty play to light on Apple’s side of the mix, ranging from historical criticisms with the brand to newer aspects.
For instance, Apple is the third-largest revenue earner in the world when it comes to games, and they also don’t make any games of their own. The revenue earning is possible because of the 30 percent pay cut that they take out of transactions made in the games they allow on their platforms.
Apple has also been magnanimous and dignified about the entire affair, saying that Epic is perfectly welcome to come back to the App Store as long as they are willing to follow the rules, though considering how their image has deteriorated over the years (plus how rabid the very large Fortnite fanbase is), it likely won’t work on many people.
Only time will tell how the Apple vs Epic debate turns out, but if you played Fortnite on an Apple device, you can still play it on a console if you have one.
