The fight between Apple and Epic Games’ Fortnite

Epic Games, the company behind the hit game “Fortnite,” started a war with Apple when they created their own payment system to prevent Apple from collecting its standard 30 percent of app sales and in-app purchases. As a result, Apple removed “Fortnite” from the App Store, and also terminated the Epic Games account.

This was a huge deal because a recent study shows that over 116 million gamers have played Fortnite on IOS, making IOS the biggest platform for Epic Games. Epic’s suspension means that the company will “no longer make apps for the iPhone or iPad” devices.

Almost immediately after “Fortnite” was removed from the App Store, Epic Games created an ad for “Fortnite,” parodying Apple’s 1984 advertisement. Epic also hosted a competition on Twitter during which viewers used the hashtag #FreeFortnite and Epic distributed prizes not sponsored by Apple.

I understand both sides of this issue, but I lean toward Epic Games’ side. I am more partial to Epic because it is a smaller company, and I support smaller companies and businesses. I also understand Epic Games’ side because Epic felt like they needed to violate Apple’s guidelines. Maybe Epic Games thought that Apple had too much power and too much money, and they wanted to take that power and money away from Apple.

During a hearing on Sept. 28 of 2020, the judge decided that public opinion was more important than anything else, so there will be another hearing for Apple and Epic’s “Fortnite” trial sometime in July 2021. The deadline for filing data for the trial is Jan. 6, 2021. I believe that the war between Apple and Epic will continue, and that the trial will be an extensive process.