The legal battle between Epic Games and Apple continues! Apple filed a new court motion on September 15 that claims Epic Games is only using the Fortnite lawsuit as an advertising campaign and therefore wasting everyone’s time, including the courts.
Many thought the battle was over as the court ruled in favor of Apple’s decision to remove Fortnite from the App Store. Apple thinks otherwise, they claim the timing on when Epic filed its lawsuit last month is very close to when they released the Apple 1984 Video meme, and the media push in general.
Before we continue with the current developments, we have several articles covering this long-drawn-out legal dispute between Apple and Epic Games' Fortnite.
Read more and Catch up on the full story here:
- Epic vs. Apple and Google – What Is Going On?
- Apple vs Epic Games: Legal Battle Explained
- Epic Hosts #FreeFortnite Tournament With Anti-Apple Prizes
- Epic Games vs. Apple: Microsoft, and the Court Rules in Favor of Both...?
As you can see this story just keeps getting deeper and we think Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, and Epic Games' Ceo, Tim Sweeny, should just resolve it with a winner take all boxing match.
As Fortnite was taken down from the App store Epic seemed to have an entire advertising campaign ready to launch. Apple had the following to say:
For reasons having nothing to do with Epic’s claims against Apple, Fortnite’s popularity is on the wane. By July 2020, interest in Fortnite had decreased by nearly 70 percent as compared to October 2019. This lawsuit (and the front-page headlines it has generated) appears to be part of a marketing campaign designed to reinvigorate interest in Fortnite.
Apple believes Epic’s Fortnite was losing popularity and thus profit. Epic's attempt to avoid the 30% rake Apple takes on in-game purchases was all planned and the advertising around the lawsuit is unjustified. Epic Games has even started to produce #Freefortnite merch. This is a pretty clear attempt to gain profit from this lawsuit, keep in mind Epic Games is still a very wealthy company, not a political prisoner.
Apple is not done firing shots at Epic Games in the courtroom and had, even more, to say in its court filing made on September 15.
Epic has engaged in a full-scale, pre-planned media blitz surrounding its decision to breach its agreement with Apple, creating ad campaigns around the effort that continue to this day. If Epic were truly concerned that it would suffer reputational injury from this dispute, it would not be engaging in these elaborate efforts to publicize it. From all appearances (including the #freefortnite campaign), Epic thinks its conduct here will engender goodwill, boost its reputation, and drive users to Fortnite, not the opposite. That is not harm.
Has Epic Games suffered any harm from Apple’s actions so far? At first, siding with Epic Games seemed fairly obvious to most media outlets and even Microsoft sided with them. But now has Epic Games taken this media campaign too far? They began all of this by trying to dodge Apple’s cut, but how much apple gets is also rather high. No easy answers here, but court judges do not like to waste time so Apple’s arguments might get this case dismissed thus ending the war between Apple and Epic Games.
We'll keep you up to date on this battle of the tech giants on EarlyGame. More news as well as tips and tricks can be found in our Fortnite section.