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Apple Says Epic Games Was Looking For A “Special Deal” In A Court Filing

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 21, 2020 by itnerd

Well, the plot thickens.

CNBC is reporting that Apple via a court filing is saying that that Epic Games was looking for a “special deal”….. Which is interesting as Epic has been saying that they were not looking for any special treatment:

In its filing, Apple alleges that Epic Games asked for an individual arrangement with Apple, producing three emails from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney that bolster its claim.

This is Apple’s first significant legal response to Epic Games after the disputebetween the two companies spilled into the courts. It comes the week after Epic Games released a direct payment mechanism inside Fortnite designed to bypass the App Store’s payment system, from which Apple takes a 30% cut. Apple subsequently removed Fortnite from its store for violating its policies. People who already have Fortnite installed on their iPhones can continue to play, but cannot update or download the app for the first time. 

Epic sued it Apple in an attempt to force it to change its business practices and launched a “free Fortnite” marketing campaign portraying Apple as the villain.

And if you go to the filing, it says this:

“On June 30, 2020, Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney wrote my colleagues and me an email asking for a ‘side letter’ from Apple that would create a special deal for only Epic that would fundamentally change the way in which Epic offers apps on Apple’s iOS platform,” former Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller wrote in a declaration. Schiller, whose title is now Fellow, runs Apple’s App Store. 

Well, that’s going to cause all sorts of trouble for Epic Games.

Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney shot back at this revelation via Twitter:

This has the smell of damage control to me. After all, they made a spoof of 1984 and acted like they were fighting for a higher purposed. But they were trying to negotiate a side deal. There’s a bit of irony in that.

I think that this will make people view Epic Games differently. Very differently.

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Epic Games Announces “#FreeFortnite Cup” With Non-Apple Devices As Prizes

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 21, 2020 by itnerd

I don’t know who runs Epic Games PR department, but this announcement of the “#FreeFortnite Cup” in my mind seems kind of weird.

Epic is inviting Fortnite players to join in a worldwide tournament this Sunday, in protest of Apple’s decision to remove Fortnite from the iOS App Store. The gaming company will offer up prizes like an in-game outfit and a physical “Free Fortnite” hat to hardware such as Alienware laptops, Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 tablets, OnePlus 8 phones, and Xbox One X and Nintendo Switch gaming systems.

For those of you keeping score at home, those are all devices that can still run Fotnite. Or in the case of the OnePlus 8 can sideload Fortnite.

This is important to Epic Games because iOS users will be effectively left behind when Chapter 2 – Season 4 launches on August 27. That’s due to the fact that Epic can’t push the update to iOS users. So if you bought one of those iPhones off eBay with Fortnite installed, you wasted your money. Android users on the other hand can in theory still sideload the update.

This is very weird. It’s as if Epic Games is scrambling to stay relevant somehow. Yes Apple has likely gone too far by targeting the Unreal Engine that Epic Games makes. But Epic Games has really tried to push its agenda here in ways that are questionable. And I have to wonder if this is going to blow up in their face at some point. We’ll have to see what happens.

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Apple Just Shot Itself In The Foot By Cutting Epic Games Off From Apple’s Developer Tools

Posted in Commentary with tags , on August 18, 2020 by itnerd

This battle between Epic Games and Apple has been interesting to watch. However, yesterday’s move by Apple to cut Epic off from using Apple’s developer tools is a major mistake by Apple. One that will bite Apple in the rear end.

Here’s why.

By targeting Epic Game’s access to Apple’s developers tools, Apple by extension is targeting the maintenance of the Epic Unreal Engine that is used many third party game makers to allow them to create the visuals behind a lot of really popular games. All these third party developers have nothing to do with this fight. Yet they’ve now been sucked into this fight. Because if Epic Games cannot make updates to the Unreal Engine, third party game makers can’t create or update their games. And that will create the perception that Apple has way too much power. And all this latest move by Apple does is to take the argument that Apple has way too much power, wrap it up in pretty wrapping paper, put a bow on it, and presents it Congress for them to slap Apple with an anti-trust investigation.

I’m not sure if this is what Apple intended. But the die has been cast. And Apple is going to need to think long and hard about whether this is really such a good idea, and if they want to change course to deal with Epic Games so that all these third party game aren’t collateral damage.

Over to you Apple.

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Apple Threatens To Kill Epic Games Access To Developer Accounts….. Epic Games Goes To Court To Stop That

Posted in Commentary with tags , on August 17, 2020 by itnerd

Well, this escalated quickly.

Epic Games via a tweet dropped this news:

The tweet links to a court filing [Warning: PDF] which asks a Northern California court to stop Apple from removing Epic’s ‌App Store‌ access. That would include app development tools including the tools that Epic uses to work on their Unreal Engine that allows others to create games. That would seriously screw over Epic Games. Perhaps even cripple or kill them. Epic is asking the court to prevent Apple from taking “any adverse action” against it, including restricting, suspending, or terminating Epic’s access to the Apple Developer program. Epic also asks that the court restrain Apple from removing, de-listing, refusing to list, or otherwise making the Fortnite app unavailable, or modifying the Fortnite code.

Apparently Apple sees a number of violations of Apple Developer Program. And all they have to do to get it back is follow Apple’s ‌App Store‌ guidelines. And they have until August 28 to dance to Apple’s tune. Which I can’t see Epic doing.

Get your popcorn ready. Things are about to get really interesting .

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Epic Games Picks A Fight With Apple And Google…. And Apple Is Going To Be On The Wrong End Of This Fight

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on August 14, 2020 by itnerd

Epic Games, makers of the insanely popular game Fortnite have decided to pick a fight with Apple and Google over being able to offer in app purchases without giving Apple and Google a cut. And to nobody’s surprise, Apple and Google have retaliated by banning Fortnite from their respective app stores. Epic Games didn’t take that well, and sued both Apple and Google.

Here’s how we got here:

  • Epic Games announced that it has introduced a new direct payment option in the Fortnite app for iPhone and iPad, allowing players to purchase 1000 V-Bucks for $7.99 rather than $9.99 through an in-app purchase mechanism which would give Apple and Google a cut. In a FAQ, Epic Games described Apple’s and Google’s 30 percent commission on in-app purchases as “exorbitant,” leading it to introduce this alternate payment system so that it can offer the same permanent discount of up to 20 percent on V-Bucks that it is now offering to players on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Mac, and PC.
  • To nobody’s surprise, Apple and Google said that this violated their app store rules and both companies pulled the game from their respective app stores.
  • Epic responded to this by dropping this video which has similar overtones to Apple’s “1984” video that launched the original Macintosh:

Here’s Apple’s “1984” video for comparison:

The next thing that Fortnite did is sue Apple [Warning: PDF] and Google. Epic’s is also encouraging Fortnite players affected by the ban to tweet at Apple with the #FreeFortnite hashtag. But I should note that it’s not doing the same thing with Google.

Clearly Epic Games was expecting things to play out the way that they have as they clearly had things ready to go. And this will end badly for Apple as this isn’t about Google despite the fact that Google is being sued as well. Here’s why. You can also still play Fortnite on Android by sideloading the app, avoiding the Google Play Store entirely. However you can’t do this on the Apple App Store. Which means that iOS users who want to play Fortnite can’t do so unless they have already have it on their iDevice. And they can’t update the game either. Which means that Apple holds all the cards. This caught the attention of Congress not too long ago and has Apple under a microscope at the moment. An example of this is Apple’s rather stupid reason for banning game streaming services. Thus Epic Games is likely assuming that if they force this issue now, Apple will be put under all sort of pressure and be the subject of negative press which will make them change course. Or encourage Congress to use anti-trust law to force Apple to change course. And seeing as Epic Games has one of the most popular games in the world at the moment, they have a lot of power. As for Google, I am pretty sure that Epic Games thinks that if Apple gets taken down, Google will likely settle very quickly.

Apple is not in a good place when it comes to this and Apple is going to lose if they don’t come up with a way out of this. Epic Games has played this perfectly and I am sure that a lot of people at Apple Park are very worried about this. Apple has pretty much have been pwned in Epic fashion.

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