‘Fortnite’ and Epic now have much bigger problems than Apple

[Chris Smith]

• Epic Games is currently engaged in a heavily publicized legal battle with Apple over Fortnite, which is currently unavailable on iPhone, iPad, and Mac following Epic's App Store violations.
• Epic now has to deal with a much bigger problem than the antitrust action against Apple. The US government is supposedly investigating how various US companies handle personal data security, Epic included.
• Chinese conglomerate Tencent holds either majority or minority stakes in these companies, including a 40% stake in Epic.

Epic Games has started a battle that it knows it can't win -- at least not yet. The company quietly updated the Fortnite app for iPhone and iPad with code that enabled Epic's payments option for in-app purchases. Apple promptly banned the app, and Epic then unleashed a PR campaign against the iPhone maker while simultaneously suing Apple and Google on anticompetitive grounds.

In the days that followed, we learned that Apple went even further than banning the app, telling Epic that it would revoke its developer accounts for both Fortnite and the Unreal Engine. Epic tried to stop this with a temporary restraining order but lost the battle on Fortnite. The judge said those were self-inflicted wounds that Epic could fix on its own if it wanted to. But the verdict also noted that the Unreal Engine should not be affected. Epic continued its PR campaign, claiming Apple was solely at fault, and making it clear it would not budge. Apple revoked the Fortnite developer account without blinking, and now the game is unplayable on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. A new hearing in the case is scheduled for September 28th, and the fates of both Fortnite and Unreal are still in play.

It turns out that the Apple lawsuit isn't even Epic's most pressing problem right now. The company might have a bigger adversary than that in the form of the US government.

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‘Fortnite’ and Epic now have much bigger problems than Apple originally appeared on BGR.com on Fri, 18 Sep 2020 at 22:15:31 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Via BRG - Boy Genius Report