Fortnite key art | Image credit: Epic Games
Epic Games is one of the few companies that successfully challenged Apple and Google, two of the most powerful gatekeepers of the digital economy. Despite the fact that it didn’t manage to win the lawsuit against Apple, the Cupertino-based giant was forced to drastically change the rules of its App Store in the EU.And it all started with Fortnite. Back in 2020, Tim Sweeney, Epic Games founder, told NPR that Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store are “making more money from creative works than creators.” It was a direct reference to the 30 percent revenue cut that Apple takes on each purchase made in the App Store.
After Epic implemented changes in Fortnite to bypass the App Store payment, Apple blocked the game from the App Store, which led to an Epic lawsuit and an Apple countersuit.
It all ended in January 2024 with the Supreme Court leaving the case primarily a victory for Apple. But that’s not the case in the EU where Apple was forced to make a lot of changes to comply with the DMA (Digital Markets Act).
Specifically, the DMA says that developers who offer their app through Apple’s App Store should be allowed to inform customers of alternative purchase options, as well as direct them to those offers and make those purchases without any cut revenue.
This opens the door for one of Apple’s biggest enemies: Epic Games. The company has just announced it has submitted the Epic Games Store and Fortnite to Apple “for their required notarization process.”
If everything goes well, Epic Games will launch the store and Fortnite on iOS in the EU in the next couple of months. The problem is that this “notarization process” could take months, not because it also includes a human review step by Apple, but because of the animosity between the two companies.