Epic Games Takes On the Giants
Epic Games, the company behind the gaming juggernaut, Fortnite, has taken legal action against both Apple and Google after the companies took the game off of their mobile stores.
A Retaliation for Being Taken Down
Epic Games first opened up their lawsuit against Apple, and then Google a few hours later, after both companies punished the game for allowing players to bypass the app stores to make in-game purchases and not giving either company a cut of the profit, which violates their app store rules. Apple made a statement on Epic’s actions:
“Today, Epic Games took the unfortunate step of violating the App Store guidelines that are applied equally to every developer and designed to keep the store safe for our users. As a result, their Fortnite app has been removed from the store.”
Epic responded by opening these legal cases for antitrust violations and saying that both companies run monopolies on the mobile app industry, as well as control over purchasing options.
Epic Is Going Hard in Their Efforts
Epic then started a social media campaign to gain support for their case, using Apple’s 1984 commercial against the companies, posing themselves as the rebellious start-up against Apple’s authoritarian regime. It also used Google’s unofficial motto of “Don’t be evil.” Their caption reads: “Epic Games has defied the App Store Monopoly. In retaliation, Apple is blocking Fortnite from a billion devices. Visit fn.gg/freefortnite and join the fight to stop 2020 from becoming ‘1984’.”