Epic Games takes on Apple in a Battle Royale over the App Store's in-app purchase policy.
Background: Welcome to Apple v Epic Games: Battle Royale. Apple...well we know who they are. Epic Games created Fortnite - a battle game with over 350 million users.
What happened: Fortnite added a tool that would let users bypass Apple's in-app purchase, so they could buy the app through Fortnite itself. This was a massive no-no, so Apple banned the Fortnite app from the App Store. Ouch.
What else: Epic Games reckons Apple was abusing its market power by forcing companies to use Apple's payment systems. So it sued Apple, and won. Now, developers can include buttons or links to other places where users can pay.
💡Epic Games may have won the battle, but they lost the war. The bad news is Apple needs to change its payments system to allow for 3rd party payments. The good news is the court found that Apple doesn't have a monopoly in the digital mobile gaming world.
💡If Apple was considered a monopoly, it could have been forced to sell parts of their business. This would hurt them big time. Especially since Apple has 55% of the mobile gaming market, and Apple's App Store sales grossed a massive US$64 billion in 2020.
💡It's still a win for app developers though, who will no longer need to give Apple a cut of their app purchases.
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