Epic Games has just about had it with mobile OS online platforms leeching fees off of their cash cow game “Fortnite.” Both Apple and Google removed the mobile version of the Battle Royale game last week following an Epic Games update allowing mobile “Fortnite” players to pay them directly while bypassing cuts to both the App Store and Google Play. The developers however did the unthinkable and sued both. Where other apps hosted on the iOS and Android online stores simply acquiesced to giving Apple and Google a portion of their in-app purchase revenues, the “Fortnite” creators are fighting back.

Epic ‘reverses’ Apple’s 1984 ad

Tech news source The Verge reports that not long after Epic Games, the developers behind the online game “Fortnite,” took Apple to court for having its mobile app being removed from the iOS App Store, it now faces a similar obstacle from the other prominent mobile OS Android. Google similarly removed the Android version of the “Fortnite” app from Google Play. The consecutive removal of the game’s mobile versions from iOS and Android was in response to Epic Games’ seeking to bypass fees paid to both Apple and Google from in-app purchases by “Fortnite” players.

In response, Epic Games is slapping Apple, then Google, with antitrust lawsuits painting their mobile platforms’ App Store and Google Play as monopolies fleecing fees off revenues gained from the apps they host online.

The primary target of the game company is Apple, as evidenced by their release of an online video ripping off the computing giant’s classic “1984” commercial for the original Apple Macintosh from that same year.

This time, in Epic Games’ reinterpretation, Apple is Big Brother and their “Fortnite” game is the oppressed new thing that is biting back instead of conforming, as with excising revenue fees.

30% revenue share deemed excessive

Mobile app stores such as Google Play and the App Store have a standard 30% share of the revenue from any purchases made from all apps they host according to CNN. No apps can be downloaded on iOS that are not on the App Store while downloading Android apps outside of Google Play is possible, but riddle with repeated safety warnings.

Some developers have railed against the 30% in-app revenue cut, but only Epic Games have taken steps to defy it, first by its update to have players pay them directly, and now with its legal proceedings against Apple and Google.

Even while that is going on though, Epic Games continues to operate “Fortnite” business as usual, featuring collaborative tie-ins with other companies like Marvel. That would explain the Season 4 Wolverine skin just recently leaked.
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