Epic Games Fighting Apple On Store Fees

Warning: The following article may contain links to some material with strong language. Reader’s discretion is advised.

The video game industry is one of avarice, all the while placating the idea that it requires more to feed itself, yet also bloating to the point of almost bursting. That is the case with two companies currently going head to in a game of one-up-manship, a game to act like the more overwhelmed by the greed of the other. Over the last 24-hours, you may have noticed that the wider news media, while covering a disastrous train detailing and whatever some outlandish politician has said this time, has also been covering a bit of gaming news. Apple Vs Epic Games, “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.”

Yes, starting just the other day, the colossal video game publisher and developer Epic Games would update their iPhone version of the popular battle royale game, Fortnite; you might have heard of it. It was the game that every brand and their mother would cling to for the last two or three years. Well, according to Epic Games, they didn’t like the deal they were given with Apple and Google for each of the mobile storefronts. Instead, they opted to update the game without warning, added a direct payment option, and immediately antagonized the storefront they are selling their free-to-play game on.

You see, Fortnite might be a free-to-play game, but in no way is Epic running the game for free. In-game you can buy something called “V-bucks,” a microtransaction currency to buy items in-game. I won’t lie, I don’t know enough about Fortnite to say without a shadow of a doubt that they are entirely cosmetic. Given I’ve not heard many complain about it, I doubt it would be pay-to-win. Before this surprise update, all V-bucks would be about 20% more expensive than they are now, remember that number. So now your $9.99 purchase for 1,000 V-bucks is down to a $7.99 purchase.

At least it was for iPhone users until Apple reacted to this swiftly and with ferocity by pulling the game from the Apple-owned storefront. iOS users can no longer play the game on mobile as the “permanent discounts,” affecting all versions of the game, circumnavigate Apple’s percentage. As Epic noted in their press release, Apple and Google both collect a 30% fee for every purchase you make through their stores, something you have to do when using their systems. I told you to remember that Epic has cut 20%, so why not just go for the full 30% percent?

In a blanket statement sent out by Apple, the company stated, “Epic enabled a feature in its app which was not reviewed or approved by Apple, and they did so with the express intent of violating the App Store guidelines.” These guidelines apply to in-app payments being handled through Apple, not the developer of apps themselves. “We will make every effort to work with Epic to resolve these violations so they can return Fortnite to the App Store,” the company went on to state. They implicitly stated that Epic did not consult with Apple on the decision to undercut them with this update.

Since Apple removed Fortnite, Epic has taken legal action against the company, stating “Epic has taken legal action to end Apple’s anti-competitive restrictions on mobile device marketplaces.” All the same, simply cutting someone’s legs off and challenging them to a testicle kicking contest isn’t much competition either. Competition would be setting up a store on the device, one that could be downloaded and used in favor of the staple and play a game of one-upmanship, buy several year-long exclusives, and claim superiority. At least that was the way many saw the Epic Games Store.

Not only has the game publisher and developer logged legal action against the multi-billion dollar tech corporation, it also wants to start a social media cat-fight. #FreeFortnite is the typical boardroom executive or middle of the road social media manager thinking up a fairly crap play on words. Do you get it? Fortnite is free-to-play, but they also want to metaphorically free Fortnite from its completely metaphorical prison that Apple placed the app in for breaking the terms and conditions set out by the company. It is about as smart and witty as a parody of Nineteen Eighty-Four would be if it was about something fairly non sequitur.

The forty-odd second long video, uploaded to Vimeo of all places, depicts several Fortnite characters boggle-eyed at a screen, much like the Apple advert from 1984. It is all done in black and white, with one character in garish luminescent color throwing a unicorn-headed hammer at the screen to break it. Thus they break the spell of monochromic “oppression” on Epic games. There is just one problem with that, Epic isn’t oppressed.

Fortnite isn’t oppressed either, it still infects gaming like a scourge. Epic has been buying studios to play subsidiary and division for years, (including this year) with a million-dollar bounty set up by the company for any substantial claim that proves they can be blamed for a hacking scandal. It was only last month that Sony invested $250 million in Epic. That is also not to mention, we’re still covering the free games offered by having an Epic Games Store account, the company is still making more than enough money.

What should be questioned is Epic’s quick succession to cobble their campaign together. The entire social media campaign and legal action were quick to be put together. The video itself, that isn’t an hours’ work, that’s at the very least half a day. The 65-page legal document wasn’t something you’d put together over lunch, it was at its heart, a calculated action Epic has taken to start a backlash against one of the biggest companies in the world. Some conspiracy theorists would draw a conclusion “Chinese government […] Tencent,” something something “Epic want to ruin everything.“

No, it is a joke. The legal document references 1984 and Apple’s advert, claiming that in 2020, Epic Games is the next in line to take the crown by fighting “anti-competitive” practices. If you want to compete, set up a phone company or create a storefront you can download. That would be competing with Apple. What Epic is currently doing with Fortnite is competing with Flappy Bird clones, sliding block puzzles, and every mobile game on the market place, all being charged the same percentage for using the storefront.

It is avarice, not just on the part of Epic but on the part of Apple too. Epic rose to their great height following Unreal, Gears of War, and Bulletstorm with Fortnite and these prices. It hasn’t hurt them before and wouldn’t hurt them to, as it were, keep it out and continue smiling. As for Apple, they make everything three and a half-million times more expensive than they need to be: No wonder the only thing millennials can hope to own is an iPhone and a MacBook, at those prices you could buy a flashy new car from 1955.

Both companies desperately want more, more, and more, just so they can have it. Epic and Apple could do several things to keep all the top executives comfortable, pay staff, keep up maintenance, and still have money in reserve. Yet they won’t because they want to make a little more each hour. So to answer the question I left hanging, why not the whole 30%? More profit.