Epic Games v. Apple

Epic games is the well known video game publisher and software developer wich created Fortnite, the first person shooter battle royal that shook the video game industry and is still one of the most popular video games on the planet. The game is a cross-platform game which means that you can play it on computers, gaming consoles and mobile devices and this last point is what caused a lawsuit between Epic Game and Apple this summer.

Everything started back in 2017 when the co founder and CEO of Epic Games questioned  the need for digital storefronts such as Steam, Apple Store and Google Play to take a 30% share of revenue since 8% should be sufficient to run such storefronts profitably. Creating the Epic game store was to demonstrate that Epic could operate with only 12% revenue cut.

The CEO said in an interview  “Apple has locked down and crippled the ecosystem by inventing an absolute monopoly on the distribution of software, on the monetization of software" and added "If every developer could accept their own payments and avoid the 30% tax by Apple we could pass the savings along to all our consumers and players would get a better deal on items. And you'd have economic competition."

Epic Games decided to pick a fight against apple on Thursdays August 13, 2020 with an update including a reduced price for V-Bucks (the game’s currency) by 20% if you purchase them directly from Epic and you could not take advantage of this offer by buying them through the Apple store.

This move was an obvious violation of the apple store’s rules and that quickly led to the game getting removed from the Store. This was nevertheless part of Epic’s plan because Epic Games instantly filed lawsuits against Apple for antitrust and anti-competitive behavior. This instant response from Epic tells us that this situation was expected and they were ready to fight. In order to prove that premeditation we can review the video“Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite” Epic uploaded on the Fortnite official page on all social media.

Here is the 50 second video:

In this video we can see a reference to Apple's very famous 1984 super bowl commercial introducing the Macintosh computer with allusion to George Orwell’s 1984 novel. This video is clearly a parody and provocation since we clearly see that this lawsuit was premeditated and Epic made this to change things in the storefront's approach of sharing cuts. Companies like Spotify, Facebook and other supported Epic Games in their lawsuit since they had their own past issues with Apple Store policies. The goal of all this is to make fundamental changes in the way Apple is doing business with everyone on the Apple Store. The CEO of Epic said on twitter “At the most basic level, we’re fighting for the freedom of people who bought smartphones to install apps from sources of their choosing, the freedom for creators of apps to distribute them as they choose, and the freedom of both groups to do business directly”. In this lawsuit Epic isn’t seeking monetary compensation, it is more about pointing out that Apple's 30% sharing cut is exorbitant but thanks to the monopoly and the ecosystem Apple Created developers are forced to accept that. The situation is described as “competitive Harm”.

In Conclusion it can be noted that Epic Games started a parallel lawsuit against google for the same reasons and this could be commented for aiming to make relations fairer and more equal between the actors of the sector and it is also a very clever marketing move by Epic since medias have spread this case and for example almost 7 billion views on the “Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite” video.

The case is still up and Apple have already filed a countersuit against Epic on September 8, 2020 and called that lawsuit attempt “to be part of a marketing campaign designed to reinvigorate interest in Fortnite”.

Lucas M.R.