Real Reason Why Apple Blocked Fortnite for iPhone

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Real Reason Why Apple Blocked Fortnite for iPhone

Epic Games announced earlier today that Apple had blocked their game Fortnite on the iOS store globally. This would mean that no iPhones could access the game, which has become a global sensation since its release. The two companies have been in a legal battle since 2020, and despite some hope last week, the game has not come out.

The battle between Epic Games and Apple has been ongoing for five years. The gaming company founded by Tim Sweeney has often criticized the iOS store and Apple’s practices of charging a 30% revenue-sharing fee. After the gaming company decided to bypass its in-app purchase fee, Apple blocked Fortnite from its online stores.

Why was Fortnite blocked from the iOS store by Apple?

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Only a week ago, Epic Games gave a hopeful update for its Apple fans, stating that they had submitted Fortnite to the iOS store for approval after being blocked for the past five years (via

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). However, it seems like all the progress has been for nought as the gaming company behind Fortnite announced that Apple had blocked the game globally.

The battle between Epic Games and Apple has been going on for five years. The big tech company first banned Fortnite from its App Store back in 2020, when Epic Games reportedly began redirecting players to make in-app purchases directly from their store. Founder Tim Sweeney had repeatedly stated that the junk fee from the iOS Store was too much.

After Apple banned the game from its iOS Store and devices globally, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against the company for antitrust and anticompetitive behavior (via

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).

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was also involved in this suit, as they too had banned the game from their storefronts due to similar practices.

The ban also resulted in Epic Games losing its developer accounts for iOS. The battle continued, with Epic accusing Apple of breaching trust laws (via 

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). The gaming company’s biggest point of contention was the commission fee for hosting the apps on their iOS store. It claimed that the 30% fee was too much for the online store.

Epic conceded with the 30% fee for other devices like consoles and computers, as there was a hardware investment. However, with the iOS and

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Play Stores, the company argued that 30% was in breach of fair competition. Since 2020, Fortnite has been banned from iOS, and even now, it seems not to have passed Apple’s check.

Fortnite and Epic Games got a pass in the EU last year

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While Fortnite has been banned from Apple devices and the iOS Store for the past five years, it got a pass last year by the EU and returned to Europe. The game was available to download in EU nations on the Epic Games store and the AltStore PAL, a third-party app store, due to the EU court’s ruling (via

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).

Apple reportedly lost the lawsuit because the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) compelled the big tech company to allow third-party app stores on the iOS platform. The act also reportedly required the company to add additional buttons for developer accounts, but Epic Games insisted that it rework some of the buttons it had in its apps.

Epic Games’ approval on the iOS Store in the EU was reportedly temporary as the big tech company compelled them to change the button design for in-app purchases, citing it to be too similar to their own. A spokesperson from Apple reportedly told The Verge,

The DMA required us to enable new capabilities for developers in the EU, and we have worked to make them as easy as possible for users while also trying to protect their privacy and security.

Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney mentioned that they would fight these conditions and said that Apple’s conditions were absurd and would render their app store harder to use.

Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney explained why Apple’s ‘junk fee’ system was unfair

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/Lex Fridman

The CEO and founder of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, has been vocal about Apple’s iOS Store practices and how unfair they have been. Sweeney reportedly planned the lawsuit against Apple regarding Fortnite’s ban with a strategy that he called ‘Project Liberty’, which fought against Apple’s platform fee over in-app purchases (via

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).

Sweeney has mentioned how gaming companies lose a chunk of their profits due to the app stores’ 30% ‘junk fee’, which he claims is absurdly high. On the other hand, the CEO does not seem to be a problem with the same fee for consoles and computers, as he said that the companies made considerable investments in manufacturing devices.

In a podcast with

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, Sweeney mentioned how Apple’s practices were not good competitive behavior. He mentioned that allowing third-party apps to compete with its own app store would encourage the platform to give a better experience, but with their heavy fees and bans in the face of non-compliance, it was a severe breach of such laws.

Sweeney mentioned that the games listed in the storefronts of iOS Store and

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Play Stores were not the ‘best games’ but were high-monetizing ‘whale games’, which encouraged lootbox practices. He also said that the store was extremely anti-user and would push competitive games instead of the searched term. He said,

Before Apple blocked ‘Fortnite’ on iOS, when a user searched for ‘Fortnite,’ the first result was always some competing game. Like it’s utterly anti-user. Like you search for Steam for a game, and if that game’s on Steam, it’s the first result always… And you know, they do that so they can make even more than 30%. So if you wanna be the first search result for your game, you’re probably paying more like 45%.

Sweeney mentioned that such practices would compel a gaming company to increase prices to make profits as the cost of making these online games readily rises, and that they were inflationary practices.

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