Apple and Google remove Fortnite from App Store and Google Play, and Epic Games is filing a lawsuit against them

 

Fortnite was launched on the iOS platform a while ago, and it was one of the games that attracted huge revenue for Apple through the App Store, it has been said that the game makes up to almost 2 million US dollars per day thanks to in-house purchases. We said that it is attracting huge revenue to Apple instead of the game developer Epic Games because it gets 30 percent of the value of the proceeds, and this means that for almost nothing to do, Apple gets $ 600,000 a day from Fortnite alone.

Of course, this wasn't good for Epic Games behind Fortnite, which recently decided that it would be a good idea to include a direct payment system in Fortnite because that allows it to sell in-game items such as V-Bucks at cheaper prices compared to using the in-app payment system. For Apple. Unfortunately, this bothered Apple a lot which has since removed the game from the App Store.

In a statement issued to MacRumors, Apple said: “Epice Games today took the unfortunate step of violating the laws and guidelines of the App Store that apply equally to every developer and designer to keep the store safe for our users. As a result, the Fortnite app has been removed from the Store. Epic Games has activated a feature in their app that has not been reviewed or approved by Apple, and it has done so with the express intent to violate the App Store guidelines and laws regarding in-app payments that apply to every developer selling digital goods or services. ”

However, it appears that this has been Epice Games' plan throughout, as the company has since filed a lawsuit against Apple to highlight “the unreasonable and illegal restrictions that Apple imposes on developers and companies to completely monopolize the market”. It should be noted that Epic Games is not the only company that has opposed Apple's deduction of 30 percent of the value of purchases within iOS apps and games, Spotify has expressed this on more than one occasion, while other companies such as Amazon have completely disabled the in-app purchase option.

Apple and Google are competing with great strength in the hardware and software market alike, as both companies develop the most popular software in the world and some of the most used devices in the world, and this does not seem surprising given that Apple is the one who owns the iOS system, while the company owns Google is the Android system, which are of course the two most traded systems in the world. However, both companies seem to cooperate together in case if there is a common interest between them as is the case now.

In fact, Apple earlier this day removed the Fortnite game from the App Store after Epic Games violated the laws and guidelines followed in the Apple Store, including only using Apple's payment system inside apps and games so that Apple could deduct 30 percent of the value of the payments within it. Now, a few hours after that, Google took the same step and removed Fortnite from the Google Play Store for the same reason.

According to Google, it stated: “For game developers who choose to use the Google Play Store, we have consistent policies that are fair to developers and keep the store safe for users. While Fortnite remains available on the Android platform, we can no longer make it available on the Google Play Store because it violates our policy. However, we welcome the opportunity to continue discussing matters with Epic Games and bring Fortnite back to the Google Play Store ”.

As for Apple, Epic Games has filed a lawsuit accusing it of unfair competition and anti-competitive practices, and now it remains to be seen whether Epic Games will do the same with Google.

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