Probably not too late to pull a "hahaha ... just kidding everyone ...".
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Apple Terminates Epic Games' Developer Account
- Thread starter Shard Shinjuku
- Start date
- News
It is CLEARLY retaliatory. Epic violated apple's rule for fortnite only. This is a big overreach and the courts will say the same. It'll be reversed next week. Another L for apple
The court straight up told Apple it could do this and recommended Epic remove the direct payments and continue updating Fortnite while the rest of the case proceeds in order to avoid it.
Waiting for the Mask to fully fall off like it did with Elon Musk...
You clearly don't understand what's actually happening here, Apple only terminated the Epic account that publishes Epic's games. The Unreal Engine account is still active. This is what the judge told them they had every right to do.
It would be great if you actually read the details of what has happened because you're coming across as trolling or intentionally ignoring info. Please educate yourself with what has already happened. 'Another L for apple' tells me your mind is already made up though.
You are totally correct that Apple has been sued over their practices before and that there are ongoing cases like the Spotify one. The App Store model has survived numerous court cases brought on by other companies. The reason that Epic has gone above and beyond here is because they are actually trying to win.
A huge part of Epic's case is that Apple taking a 30% cut of transaction inside an app is causing consumer harm. Trying workarounds to get back on the App Store, or simply allowing Apple to take their 30% cut could weaken Epic's case.
I was just reading the articles and it sounds like the judge only focused on Unreal Engine at that point since Apple cut off support immediately and she was not focused on the developer account. I'm sure Epic will bring an immediate action to the court next week and again the judge will issue another temporary restraining order. Let's just wait until next week. I'm sure Epic will not let this stand.
They did what the court allowed them to. Please go read what the court said about the TRO and what Apple was within its rights to do.
Off-Topic but holy shit I never thought I'd see the name CrackWatch again. I was a part of their discord right when they were getting started and it was the biggest toxic cesspool of assholes I've ever seen
On-Topic: Epic thinks they can do w/e they want without repercussion and apple is showing them that is obviously not the case.
The only ones wearing the L right now are Epic. You should read all the information on what's going on or other users might think you are just trolling.
Maybe don't post if you don't know what this is about. It's not retaliatory at all. The courts said they could do this.
This is wrong.
The court told Epic they could continue their suit and stay on the App Store if they reverted Fortnite to its early August state.
Wrong, the Court told Apple they were free to do this if Epic didn't remove their payment system.
Be sure to quote us all when she does! Man, are we gonna look dumb.
Meanwhile what you all don't realize is that Epic has a phone they are about to announce that only uses EGS and will make Fortnite Mobile exclusive.
Why would the court issue another TRO? It already gave Apple permission to do this if Epic didn't revert the changes to Fornite.
It's going to issue a TRO against something it gave Apple permission to do...?
The opinion in the TRO makes it very clear both aspects were considered and each was ruled on separately.
...and later:
Epic since 2018 until 2 weeks ago charged $10 for 1000 VBucks on their own PC store for which they were not paying 30%. Where was the consumer benefit?
Epic right now is charging the same $7.99 on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo which are also taking 30%. Where is the consumer harm?
Yeah, and I can pretty much guarantee a judge will look at that and ask Epic why they're singling Apple out, and the excuse of "Apple makes more profit on their hardware" won't fly.
hope apple wins.
epic trying to turn fortnight players into a army to fight for them was disgusting
epic trying to turn fortnight players into a army to fight for them was disgusting
Thanks for posting the actual excerpts from the decision. From the article alone it was not clear.The opinion in the TRO makes it very clear both aspects were considered and each was ruled on separately.
...and later:
Not cheerleading either side.
Just find it amusing that Epic is probably starting to realize they bit off more than they can chew.
I'm thinking this must've been the case too and it was an interesting miscalculation. Of all the people that play Fortnite, how many play exclusively on mobile and what is their age range? I'd imagine it would skew quite young (<12) and there would be a miniscule amount that don't also have a console. So who exactly was supposed to generate all the outrage they expected?
As far as politicians and judges go, they love Tim Apple and co and are excited about the 4:1 stock split.
I was just about to ask this. Are VBucks more expensive on ios because of this 30% cut Apple takes? If not, if VBucks prices are the same all over the place, then the consumer isn't being "harmed", it's just Epic's greed at play, and Tim Sweeny's need to swing his dick around in regards to the policies of other companies.
He used Steam's cut in order to justify his own store buying up exclusives left and right, using it as a smokescreen to benefit his company. This reeks of the same tactic, trying to force through circumventing Apple's payment system to benefit him and his company while painting Apple as the bad guy with his pre-prepared CG video, rallying gamers to shout and scream about it, as if he gives a shit about any of them beyond the cash they give him.
And no, this isn't to defend Apple. Haven't owned an Apple product for many years, wouldn't give a shit if the company pulled an Enron and collapsed in shambles. The way Sweeny conducts himself and his company and coats it all in a thin veneer of giving a shit about the little guy....just, ugh. It's sleazy and disingenuous to absurd levels.
$10 for 1000 VBucks on EGS has been spent on things like Fortnite, Unreal Engine, EGS game giveaways etc. These are all things that benefit consumers since they are gobbling it up. Apple's 30% mostly goes to untaxed offshore bank accounts.
If Epic can get an antitrust ruling against Apple, then that could force a change in across all online stores, including the consoles.
I'm not siding with Epic here, but you have to understand that this is what they have do in order to win an antitrust case. The quality of submissions from Epic's legal team show that they have done their preparation and they are ready for a long battle. It's possible that this will progress through the system and eventually end up in front of the Supreme Court.
Maybe that was indeed the strategy, but then when Apple not only took Fortnite off the store but also the UE support, it should have been a clue that they were prepared to deal with bigger blowback than Epic anticipated.
Sweeney really appears to be shooting from the hip here; his lawyers are very accomplished I am certain they aren't telling him to try and litigate the case on Twitter.
Apple's policy is that the App Store price cannot be higher than any other price. So you can't charge $10 on iOS and $7 elsewhere for something.
This means that developers either have to raise prices elsewhere to match iOS (hurting consumers on other platforms by increasing prices) or to make 30% less on iOS (hurting the developers).
In reality, because all stores are taking a 30% cut it doesn't really make a difference. What Epic are trying to do is break this model.
I don't think the court was suggesting terminating Epic's account and every single game that came with it. This was about Fortnite no?
Edit:
The opinion in the TRO makes it very clear both aspects were considered and each was ruled on separately.
...and later:
Just read this. "Fortnite and other games"
That doesn't benefit the customer...only Epic. The customer is not being harmed, despite what Epic are claiming. Epic also don't give a shit about smaller devs and companies, they're doing this for themselves. It's nauseating to see them try to paint themselves as noble crusaders in this way.
Kind of hard to make a compelling case when they are more than comfortable with the "harmful" 30% cut being taken by Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, etc. If they are going to demand a royalty-free presence on iOS then they should be demanding it for all platforms.
You could equally say with Apple that 30% is going into iPhone development, hosting free apps on the App Store, Apple's educational donations, etc. Epic is a private company so you have no idea how much is profit and how much is going into R&D.
Nope, Twitch subs are $5.99 on iOS and $4.99 on web. Youtube premium is $15.99 vs 11.99. Epic had chosen to pocket the 27% extra they made on PC.
It's that user's schtick in all this threads. Epic good Apple bad.
Didn't Epic say that Steam has pc gaming in a Monopoly or something and now Epic is paying for games to only release exclusively with them. And now the Apple fee is hurting consumers but they charged the same price on all platforms and even pc dor fortnite currency. I doubt epic wants anything good to come out to benefit the consumer, Epic is all about themselves. Epic should get terminated by everyone. Stick to making graphic engines and thats it.
They should absolutely demand it for all platforms, but that's not how the legal system works.
I'm not the biggest fan of epic but I don't see why they would back down. Fortnite is still massive without iOS.
So why doesn't the PS4 version of Fortnite have its own Epic-run payment processing that bypasses PSN? The same stunt they pulled on iOS could be used to test the waters elsewhere. This isn't some limitation of how the legal system works; they can do this wherever they want and then hash out the consequences.
Apple spends 16 billion on R&D a year which is about 8 percent of their total yearly revenue. on the same note, who says Epic inst vaulting most of their new revenue on offshore untaxed bank accounts?
