And what if Fortnite could change the lives of mobile developers?

As you may know, I've been examining the actions of publisher Epic Games and its game Fortnite for my book released on May 14, 2020: "Fortnite a-t'il transformé nos enfants en zombies ?" available on Amazon, which covers all the societal, psychological, educational, and playful aspects of the game.

But today we're going to talk about the studio's power, its marketing, its lawsuit against Apple and what it could change in developers' lives.

The lawsuit: Epic Games vs Apple

On August 13, Epic Games filed an injunctive measure against Apple before the Northern California Court of Justice.

The facts

On the same day, Epic Games announced the release of season 4 (chapter 2) of Fortnite through a new update to its client.

The update was also the occasion for a commercial event including a 20% discount on the purchase of their virtual currency, V-Bucks, thus bringing the purchase price of 1000 V-Bucks from €9.99 to €7.99 on PC and Console.

So that mobile players wouldn't be left out, Epic Games used a slightly different strategy by implementing a third-party payment system in their mobile applications, in order to bypass the 30% in-app purchase fees on iOS and Android.

Following the violation of their App Store terms of use, Apple decided to remove the Fortnite application from its store for all users, effectively blocking Fortnite's access to the billion devices running iOS.

A few hours later, Epic Games announced it was taking legal action against Apple over the violation of US "antitrust" laws, laws meant to protect consumers from abusive business practices by companies with a market monopoly.

What Epic Games is demanding

Contrary to what one might expect from a private publisher deprived of a certain percentage of its revenue at the launch of a new version of its game, Epic Games states in its legal communication, and I quote:

"Epic is not seeking monetary compensation from this Court for the injuries it has suffered. Nor is Epic seeking favorable treatment for itself, a single company. Instead, Epic is seeking injunctive relief to allow fair competition [...]"

Epic tells us that they are seeking neither monetary compensation nor favorable treatment for the studio or any particular company. They are asking that ALL app publishers be able to benefit from fair competition, namely the ability to add a third-party payment method without any consequences in the future.

Yes, Epic Games is positioning itself as a "Robin Hood" in this affair, carefully prepared as all the company's communication actions to counter Apple's embargo were already ready to be published, as we'll see later in this article.

A stroke of communication genius

We already know that Epic Games' promotional communication is ultra-effective thanks to virtual events like the game's disappearance into a black hole, or concerts like the giant version of Travis Scott.

But what we're discovering today is that Epic handles its legal communication the same way it handles its promotional communication.

Because in addition to playing the "Robin Hood" card, Epic fully intends to bring its entire community to its side by publishing a statement insisting that:

"Because Apple has BLOCKED your ability to update, when Fortnite Chapter 2 - Season 4 releases you will NOT be able to play the new Season on iOS. Make your voice heard with #FreeFortnite"

Epic Games is thus inviting its entire community to support it in this action by using the hashtag #FreeFortnite because iOS players currently cannot play the new season of the game!

Reaching the general public

As if rallying its community of 350 million players wasn't enough, Epic decided to strike a major blow by parodying Apple's most iconic advertisement: 1984, inspired by the film of the same name by George Orwell.

Here is the parody:

And for those who don't know it, here is the original advertisement:

By parodying this advertisement, Epic sends a strong message, one that is also present in its injunction: Apple has become what it always fought against, it has become the oppressor.

This video clearly speaks to a more mature audience, not those who play Fortnite, but those who increasingly doubt the GAFAM companies and their power over our society.

Let's remember that this action comes just a few weeks after the CEOs of these multinationals were forced to appear before the US Congress regarding their possible anti-competitive practices.

What timing!

Conclusion

Will Epic Games manage to make giants Apple and Google back down in order to give more freedom to mobile game and app developers?

Hard to say, but the fact remains that it may be one of the only companies with the communication power and the funds necessary to sustain this fight, and even though I don't support Epic Games in general, we can only hope that they have an impact in this affair!

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Source (Epic Games lawsuit in English): https://cdn2.unrealengine.com/apple-complaint-734589783.pdf