It is a soap opera that has been going on for a very long time now. The Apple – Epic Games duel continues to escalate and, according to the latest information, Fortnite will not return for years to iOS and Mac.
This is a particularly important and high-profile litigation that has not yet finished talking about it. Accused of having broken the rules of the contract which bound him to the AppStore to avoid Apple’s taxes, Epic Games has had its precious Fortnite removed from the manufacturer’s famous virtual store.
Not so happy with this huge loss of visibility, Tim Sweeney’s firm has therefore decided to take the Tim Cook to court: since then, it’s a showdown, and their relationship doesn’t seem to want to be mended.
A verdict had been rendered a few days ago in favor of Epic Games, which could bring back its application next December on Apple’s platforms. However, this decision can be challenged by the company by appealing to a higher court, what the GAFA member intends to do.
No Fortnite for years?
September 16, Epic Games (via its famous CEO) had therefore written to Apple to ask him to reactivate his developer account, suspended since August 2020 now, with even the promise to respect the charter of the AppStore. But the apple company remains adamant and its response letter has only just been leaked:
Epic committed an intentional breach of contract and breach of trust by disregarding Apple’s code and making false statements and omissions. In its decision, the court recognized “that Apple had the contractual right to act as it did”.
In the sense of this statement and others since the court decision, Apple has chosen not to restore the developer account of Epic Games for the moment. What’s more, Apple will not consider any further reinstatement requests until the court’s judgment is final and without appeal.
As Tim Sweeney notes on Twitter, that last sentence sounds more threatening than the others: before the verdict is “Final and without appeal”, time is often counted in years. And for him, it is of a process that could “Go up to five years”.
Would Fortnite not return to the AppStore until around 2026? According to Apple, this is what is planned and the organization will appeal as much as possible.
A real blow for Epic Games which, although it is doing very well thanks to an extremely large community with other platforms, must however sit on the gigantic park of the American giant. Maybe the two will find another deal in some time.
Late last night, Apple informed Epic that Fortnite will be blacklisted from the Apple ecosystem until the exhaustion of all court appeals, which could be as long as a 5-year process. pic.twitter.com/QCD7wogJef
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 22, 2021