If you expected the decision on Apple v. Epic in early September meant Fortnite would be back on iPhones soon, but there's bad news: The game will remain banned on Apple devices until appeals to the court ruling are exhausted, which could take up to five years. This is according to Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic, who tweeted that Apple has officially informed Epic that it will continue to blacklist Fortnite on iPhone and iOS devices.
Late last night, Apple informed Epic that Fortnite will be blacklisted from the Apple ecosystem until all legal remedies have been exhausted, which could take up to 5 years. pic.twitter.com/QCD7wogJef September 22, 2021 See More In a discussion thread, Sweeney included Epic's message to Apple asking for his developer account (which allows individuals and businesses to submit apps to the App Store) to be reinstated. , which is part capitulation and part insistence that Apple adhere to the court ruling by allowing any developer to direct users to third-party payment options. Apple's response also touched on the court's ruling, echoing Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers' ruling that Apple had reason to remove Fortnite from iPhones and ban Epic for breach of contract. Because Epic had cunningly introduced code to intentionally break App Store rules, which Apple called "duplicity," the latter decided to uphold the ban, saying it will refuse to consider any further applications until "the court's ruling district is final and not subject to appeal." In other words, the tech giants are always arguing, and you probably won't be able to play Fortnite on your iPhone or Mac any time soon.
Analysis: Epic may have won a court victory, but Apple still has the keys to the App Store
Judge Gonzalez's ruling (uploaded here as a 185-page PDF by The Verge) gave Epic a partial victory: Apple can no longer prevent developers from including references and links to payment systems other than Embedded Payments (which Apple has up to 30% discount). ). In practice, this means that apps can have buttons and links that allow users to exit the app to set up and pay for things, thus earning more revenue for developers. Since the ruling was published relatively recently, we have yet to see the law enforced. But the ruling failed to substantiate any of Epic's other allegations of abuse and disadvantage; Importantly, Judge González dismissed the idea that the App Store is a monopoly, essentially pointing to the comparable Google Play Store as an alternative. This closed the door on Epic's plans to open its own Epic Games Store on iOS and other Apple platforms, let alone avoid Apple's revenue cuts. As mentioned above, the move also validated Apple's decision to launch Epic off its platform, allowing for that action and future steps the company could take to deal with similar stunts in violation of App Store policy, such as the reason for the ban. This keeps the ball in Apple's court, so to speak, and prevents Epic or other companies from seeking legal assistance to revert to software platforms against the wishes of the platform owners. This is one of the many reasons why Epic immediately appealed the ruling after it was made. So while Sweeney is right to tweet that "Epic agreed with Apple that we play by the same rules as everyone else," just because the company is capitulating to a set of predefined conditions doesn't mean that 'Apple has to let them Comes back. in the App Store. It's unclear what Epic should do to please Apple enough to grab Fortnite on iPhones, but one thing is for sure: Apple isn't making it easy. Tim Sweeney screwed up and found out.