Fortnite is...back? To the Apple Store? After a lengthy legal battle spanning years, Fortnite has returned as a free download for iPhones and iPads in the United States. Its return signals a change in the type of control that Apple has over how it licenses products on the App Store and specifically how it makes revenue from that licensing. Learn about how Fortnite sparked these changes and more in this article.

The Overview

As it's likely that we all know, Fortnite is a game that subsists on the free-to-play model that more and more games have begun to adopt (see Counter-Strike 2, THE FINALS, Zenless Zone Zero, FragPunk, Splitgate, etc.). In order to make money, most of these games derive their profit from the inclusion of purchases such as digital currency or in-game cosmetics, financed by real money. The game distribution platforms that these games exist on, such as Steam or the App Store, mandate that they usually take some sum of money from each purchase made while the game is being hosted on their platform - usually, this is around 30%.

Developers and game developer studios have long argued that the 30% standard that many digital game distribution platforms (including the App Store, to the extent that they offer games) boasts an unnecessarily high takeaway. In Fortnite and the App Store's case, Epic Games (the developer of Fortnite) created a system that circumvented the automatic fee processing that Apple would undertake on every purchase - something Apple didn't like, which led it to remove Fortnite from the Apple Store until further notice.

The Lawsuit

With the removal of Fortnite from the Apple Store in 2020, Epic Games sought to file a lawsuit against Apple that same year. Epic Games alleged that Apple's policies relating to the forcing of the usage of Apple's payment processing systems (those which would take away 30% of revenue made from in-game purchases), as well as its censorship of other alternative means of payment being able to be made to the developers of the game, was unfair. 

Apple counter-sued and alleged that Epic violated the Apple Store's terms of usage and that compensation for missed revenue should be allotted to Apple due to the inclusion of the fee circumventing feature. Fast-forward to 2021: a few legal roadblocks in Apple's favor made it such that only some of the charges against Apple stuck in federal court - namely, the censorship of other alternative means (known in law as the "anti-steering policy". 

Neither Apple nor Epic Games were happy with the suit, and appealed the decision once more before the case reached the Supreme Court, where it was declined to be heard. The case was laid to rest - for now...

Outcomes

The anti-steering policy wasn't a hit in court. Apple's new policy allows developers to provide links within apps that redirect users to make purchases outside of the app, but it isn't really much better in the case of developers, as if an individual makes a purchase within 7 days of accessing that link, Apple still takes a 27% cut. Developers also must be granted permission by Apple to feature such a link in their app. Sucks.

However, this decision gave a great way to another major event within the development of the lawsuit - app creators such as Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter) and others alleged in court again that the leeway that Apple provided was insufficient.

With the support of these companies in court and a wholly provision against Apple of the former allegations, it was found that Apple is to be prohibited from taking cuts on payments made to developers of apps, as well as impede the redirection of alternative payments to developers of apps (such as those methods in the case of Epic Games). It was an absolute win for game and app developers, and a pretty upsetting loss for Apple who seemed to have held a market majority of the revenue share between mobile application hosting platforms for a while.

Conclusion

Fortnite’s reappearance on the Apple App Store comes after years of legal battles that challenged the foundations of mobile app distribution. With new policies now limiting Apple’s ability to control third-party payments, developers are beginning to see cracks in a system that once seemed untouchable - thanks to the combined efforts of Epic Games alongside Meta, X, and other entities generally just kind of tired of Apple, the stage has been set for a more competitive and developer-focused mobile ecosystem.

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