#FreeFortnite

Recently Epic Games made some changes to the mobile versions of Fortnite. You were able to buy the in-game currency via Epic’s own app rather than use the Google Play and App Store purchases. Obviously, both Apple and Google want their cut, so they chose to ban Fortnite on both Android and iOS. That being said, you can still side-load the game on Android or get it from the Samsung store. But you can’t play it on Apple anymore, which can be quite the issue.

What is #FreeFortnite?

This is a hashtag created by people that love the game and Epic Games, and they want to promote the idea of freeing the game from the lashes of those app stores. Epic wants a simpler way to get paid, surely they want to get 100% of their revenue and not split it 30% with others. They believe that the popularity of the game surpasses what promotion the app store offers to them, so obviously the  #FreeFortnite moniker is something we will see more and more. People are firm believers that eventually they will need to get back on the stores. After all, Epic Games and Apple were partners a few years ago when they launched some of their phones.

On top of that, aside from offering two tier pricing, Epic also created a Fortnite version of the infamous 1984 ad from Apple. This time around, they show Apple as the bad guy, and they encourage people to use #FreeFortnite everywhere they can in order to show that the corporate control needs to stop.

Will Epic Games succeed in their quest?

One thing to note about Epic is that they are making a lot of money from Fortnite. On top of that, they also have the Unreal Engine which is very profitable. So if there’s a company that can fight against them and try to eliminate Apple’s 30% tax or just make it lower, that might very well be the case here. Epic does bring in the power and strength needed to really handle this in a proper manner. The potential for them to lower the costs in court is very interesting.

That being said, the legal battle is set to be a long one. We can expect a lot of people to try and emulate this, but at the end of the day it all comes down to Apple to try and boost its power and really push things to new heights. The potential for them doing so is definitely there.

It’s interesting to see that one developer is actually trying to take on large companies like this. That’s great for them, although we can easily see that it will eventually take a little while until all of this will come to light. Are there severe challenges to deal with? Absolutely, and Epic will need to do their best to show their power and reasoning in court. It’s not easy, but they are one of the main companies that have the potential to make a difference!