Epic CEO decries Apple's App Store 'propaganda' after 10 months of his own
Tim Sweeney, the man behind the "Fortnite" 1984 ad campaign against Apple, claims that corporate propaganda shouldn't be the response to big tech issues.

Epic Games' CEO doesn't believe corporate propaganda is the answer
The Epic Games versus Apple trial may have adjourned, but Tim Sweeney is still complaining about Apple's business practices on Twitter. While a verdict and action plan from the judge is still pending, "Fortnite" continues its existence off of Apple's platforms.
A tweet from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney suggests that corporate propaganda campaigns shouldn't be the solution to a problem, that companies should "just fix it and bear the costs." The statement from Sweeney comes after Apple's pamphlet on privacy and sideloading was released on Wednesday.
The hypocrisy of the statement appears to be lost on Sweeney, who's company ran an expensive, multi-week campaign against Apple before the trial. After breaking Apple's App Store guidelines on purpose, the company sued Apple and released a propaganda video mimicking Apple's "1984" ad that launched the Mac.
After the ad released, "Fortnite" had in-game content advertising the legal opposition against Apple. The entire campaign was run via the hashtag #FreeFortnite to convince players to speak out against Apple's business practices.
"Fortnite" was removed from Apple's platforms, and despite being able to return to the App Store at any time, Tim Sweeney refused to "just fix it and bear the costs." The popular game still isn't available on Apple's platforms which previously earned Apple as much as $100 million.
Keep up with everything Apple in the weekly AppleInsider Podcast -- and get a fast news update from AppleInsider Daily. Just say, "Hey, Siri," to your HomePod mini and ask for these podcasts, and our latest HomeKit Insider episode too.If you want an ad-free main AppleInsider Podcast experience, you can support the AppleInsider podcast by subscribing for $5 per month through Apple's Podcasts app, or via Patreon if you prefer any other podcast player.

Epic Games' CEO doesn't believe corporate propaganda is the answer
The Epic Games versus Apple trial may have adjourned, but Tim Sweeney is still complaining about Apple's business practices on Twitter. While a verdict and action plan from the judge is still pending, "Fortnite" continues its existence off of Apple's platforms.
A tweet from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney suggests that corporate propaganda campaigns shouldn't be the solution to a problem, that companies should "just fix it and bear the costs." The statement from Sweeney comes after Apple's pamphlet on privacy and sideloading was released on Wednesday.
I really hope corporate propaganda campaigns don't become a permanent fixture of the tech industry. If a company has a problem, just fix it and bear the costs, and if that takes time to do right then say so.
-- Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic)
The hypocrisy of the statement appears to be lost on Sweeney, who's company ran an expensive, multi-week campaign against Apple before the trial. After breaking Apple's App Store guidelines on purpose, the company sued Apple and released a propaganda video mimicking Apple's "1984" ad that launched the Mac.
After the ad released, "Fortnite" had in-game content advertising the legal opposition against Apple. The entire campaign was run via the hashtag #FreeFortnite to convince players to speak out against Apple's business practices.
"Fortnite" was removed from Apple's platforms, and despite being able to return to the App Store at any time, Tim Sweeney refused to "just fix it and bear the costs." The popular game still isn't available on Apple's platforms which previously earned Apple as much as $100 million.
Keep up with everything Apple in the weekly AppleInsider Podcast -- and get a fast news update from AppleInsider Daily. Just say, "Hey, Siri," to your HomePod mini and ask for these podcasts, and our latest HomeKit Insider episode too.If you want an ad-free main AppleInsider Podcast experience, you can support the AppleInsider podcast by subscribing for $5 per month through Apple's Podcasts app, or via Patreon if you prefer any other podcast player.
Comments
#FreeFortnite, I saw 12 year olds posting that crap like they knew anything about the business.
There are not many of our leaders (politicians, tech companies, etc.) who value truth. Most believe truth gets in the way of the their agenda, and the population is basically idiots who need the truth sanitised for their own good.
And it’s a shame that enough of the population has submitted to that mentality where it’s nearly an inescapable reality.
Someone hold my beer before I spill it laughing my balls off at this fucking clown!!!
Apple treats every developer as if they are hostile.
Seriously? Rouge Amoeba, who has been a Mac developer for decades, can't be trusted with private API access?
Apple are a bunch of cowards hiding behind policy - that they created! Why does everyone have to be treated the same? Answer: they don't. But it's far easier to treat everyone the same. No critical thought required - just numbly point to the policy, claim your hands are tied and then conveniently ignore the fact that you made the policy that is tying your hands in the first place.
What's even worse - they can't even do that correctly! They don't even enforce their overly simplistic policy consistently.
They can't even hid behind crying poverty (lack of resources) - they have the largest market cap!
So what's the issue? They don't care. I long thought Marco Arment was going overboard with his thoughts on Apple abusing developers - but the more I critically analyze this whole thing and get below the superficial arguments, it becomes more and more apparent that Apple does indeed developers as an annoyance and something they have to begrudgingly deal with - rather than a group they value and respect.
This bizarre argument that more choice is less choice is utterly incomprehensible. If you want to enjoy the totally locked down ecosystem, how does someone else having the choice to side load impact you? What's that? Your favorite app may defect to one of the alternate stores/methods? Hmm - guess Apple should up their game so that their offering makes so much sense it would be crazy to even contemplate going down a different path, no?
I was strongly in the stance that Apple should be able to run their platform as they see fit - but after a decade of watching them continually bungle the handling of the app store and developer relations and get away with it through sheer momentum enough is enough. Turns out there is no such thing as a benevolent dictator