Epic Games won decisively against Apple

Retrospective: Last August, Epic released an update to its flagship game "Fortnite" on iOS (and Android) incorporating a third-party payment system to bypass Apple's 30% commission on in-app digital purchases.

Within a single day, Apple had banned Epic from the AppStore, and Epic then sued Apple with a remarkable communication plan, encouraging its entire community to take part in the media battle against the tech giant.

If you haven't been following this story, find all the details in an article dedicated to the subject detailing Epic's strategy.

In short, Epic was demanding a reduction in the commissions taken by Apple in order to benefit small studios and innovation.

Apple has caved

On November 18, 2020, Apple announced it would lower the commission taken on app purchases and in-app purchases from 30 to 15%, i.e. half, for all studios generating less than one million dollars in revenue per year through the AppStore.

This threshold therefore gives most app publishers considerable leeway and will allow independent studios greater financial freedom from Apple.

This new program, called "Small Business," which will start in January 2021, will be indexed to the current year's revenue: If a studio exceeds $1 million in revenue in a given year, the following year's revenue will be taxed by Apple at 15% until it once again exceeds the critical threshold.

But in the end, does this new decision benefit the Epic studio and its game Fortnite?

No, but as I explained in my article from August, the studio's goal was a massive communication operation aimed at improving conditions for all iOS developers, not just securing an exception for Epic.

More than one trick up their sleeve

In their battle against Apple, Epic has thus built itself a reputation as a white knight, but their most popular game "Fortnite" is still absent from Apple's app store.

But since early November, information about a partnership between Nvidia and Epic has started circulating. The market leader in processors and graphics cards has been making a lot of noise lately, particularly for its advances in the field of "cloud gaming" with its "GeForce Now" service.

GeForce Now allows anyone to turn a device (computer, phone, tablet) connected to the internet (with a sufficient connection) into a game console.

The service runs the game on Nvidia's servers, captures the player's actions (on screen or with a controller) to translate them into the game and sends the video stream back to the player's screen, all with more than acceptable latency.

This service is already available on Windows, Mac, and Android, but Apple's AppStore currently does not allow Nvidia to publish their native cloud-gaming app, forcing them to interface their service with iOS's Safari web browser instead.

Since GeForce Now already works on Chrome, Nvidia's engineers managed to port their service to Apple's browser, thus completely bypassing the AppStore, its commissions, and its restrictions.

Epic's goal is therefore to make Fortnite available on iOS without Apple having any control whatsoever over its game, somewhat like on Android where you can install an app without going through the PlayStore.

Has Epic won across the board in its fight against Apple? Time will tell, but one is nonetheless tempted to say yes!

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Sources:
https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=i7jzeefs
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55002430