‘Fortnite’ has just returned to the iOS App Store in the United States. It is not a new game, much less: it is the same title that accumulated millions of users when debuted in 2017 and that has not stopped updating since then.
The return comes after a long legal battle between Epic and Apple, which took the store game in 2020. Now it is available again, and that says much more than it seems: the rules of the iOS ecosystem are starting to move, and Epic once again occupies a place that Apple had closed.
A fight that started with a button. Epic decided to include his own payments within Fortnite, thus skipping the standards of the App Store. Apple responded by removing the game from his store. That movement was the beginning of a dispute that did not go unnoticed.
The case ended in court. What came later was a high profile battle between two giants in the sector. Epic accused Apple of imposing unfair conditions, while Apple defended that the rules were the same for everyone.
A partial victory for Epic. Justice did not consider Apple to have a monopoly, but it did conclude that it violated California’s unfair competition law. The failure forces Apple to allow apps to include links or buttons towards external payment systems.
Apple didn’t make it easy. Although Apple modified its policies after the judicial resolution, it introduced warning screens that advised against the use of external payment methods, all this with Epic protesting again and again.
Europe forced the first crack. In the European Union, the context is different. Under the pressure of the community authorities and thanks to the new legislation of the Digital Markets Law, Apple allowed Epic Games to install Fortnite on the iPhone through its own application store. This exemplifies how the rules of the game can vary according to the region.
In Android the story was similar (but not the same). Google also withdrew Fortnite from his store for the same reason: Epic had activated his own payment system. However, in December 2023 a jury declared that Google maintained a monopoly in the mobile appthical distribution market. The company has appealed. Today, Google Play still does not offer Fortnite, although Android users can download it directly from the Epic website.
Epic no se rinde. The company has been denouncing what it considers abusive conditions by large application stores, especially with regard to commissions. Its objective is to change that model, and Fortnite’s return to the iPhone seems, at least for the moment, a small step in that direction.
Imágenes | appshunter | Epic Games
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