Epic Games to hold 'FreeFortnite Cup' as part of anti-Apple campaign

AppleInsider · August 21, 2020 4:42AM

Epic Games is taking another swipe at Apple as Fortnite essentially sunsets on iOS, with the game maker holding an in-game tournament with special prizes that lampoon the tech giant.

Dubbed the "FreeFortnite Cup," the upcoming tournament starts on Aug. 23 and includes prizes like a "Tart Tycoon" skin borrowed from the Tim Cook caricature that starred in Epic's "Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite" ad.

Physical prizes are also up for grabs, with the company giving away 20,000 "Free Fortnite" hats (designed in the style of Apple's classic "Think Different" merchandise) and 1,200 pieces of non-Apple gaming hardware like an Alienware Gaming Laptop, Samsung Galaxy Tab S7, OnePlus 8, PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One X and Nintendo Switch.

Players can take part in the tournament by navigating to the "Compete" tab in game and selecting the "#FreeFortnite Cup Playlist." Participants have four hours to rack up points -- active time, eliminations and victories -- in up to 12 solo matches.

"These are the final days of the entire Fortnite community's ability to play together. Apple has blocked Fortnite from the App Store, preventing players from updating to new versions," Epic said in a press release. "Players on iOS devices will be left behind on Chapter 2 - Season 3 while everyone else jumps into the Chapter 2 - Season 4 launch on August 27."

Former Fortnite players who deleted the game from their iPhone or iPad can take part in the tournament by reinstalling the title.

Epic last week baited Apple into removing Fortnite from the App Store by issuing an update that incorporated a direct payment option for in-game currency. Once the title was removed, as per App Store guidelines, Epic launched an all-out legal assault targeting Apple's store fees and business strategy. Corresponding PR and social media campaigns followed.

Apple has defended its decision, saying it "won't make an exception" for Epic to skirt App Store rules. The tech giant promises to terminate Epic's developer account and cut off its access to iOS and Mac development tools, a move that would prohibit Epic from updating the Unreal Engine on which many iOS and Mac games are built. Epic this week requested a temporary restraining order to stop Apple from following through with its threat.

japhey · August 21, 2020 5:30AM

"These are the final days of the entire Fortnite community's ability to play together. Apple has blocked Fortnite from the App Store, preventing players from updating to new versions," Epic said in a press release. "Players on iOS devices will be left behind on Chapter 2 - Season 3 while everyone else jumps into the Chapter 2 - Season 4 launch on August 27."

I was determined to not take sides on this issue, seeing both parties as having a legitimate case. But this is seriously not cool. At all. Everything about Epic’s moves this last week have been tactical and calculated, to the point where, I hesitatingly admit, I actually started to respect them. But to willfully disrespect your customers and force them to choose sides by shutting them out of the new season is way over the line. Disrespect Apple, the system, Tim, or vintage ad campaigns all you want, it’s all entertainment to those on the outside. But you NEVER disrespect your customer base, especially intentionally. I think they have massively overplayed their hand if they expect to win a loyalty battle here.

edited August 2020

qwerty52 · August 21, 2020 6:26AM

With the action that Epic takes against Apple, in the end of all, it will loose much more money than the 30% Apple’s commission it fights now.

Games are coming in and games are going out the AppStore all the time. The only thing it remains it’s the AppStore self. So, bye bye Epic!

jdw · August 21, 2020 6:55AM

A year from now the only thing we will remember is:

#EpicFail

spamsandwich · August 21, 2020 7:01AM

Kill their dev account now. Why wait? These guys are horrible people who made too much money too fast.

macseeker · August 21, 2020 7:22AM

I just want a basic you-are-there experience. I want something simple that will allow me to fly a plane from one point to another. Didn't want something complex nor giving my data to the developer. Yep, I'm simple. Not interested in others see my performance.

castcore · August 21, 2020 7:38AM

Epic is truly greedy and disgusting

rayz2016 · August 21, 2020 8:43AM

Wow.

Talk about a total lack of respect for your customers. Using them as pawns like his … just … wow.

seneca72 · August 21, 2020 9:07AM

The only person I know that plays Fornite does it on a game console, so I doubt they could give a toss whether it's on iOS or not.

Agree with others on this thread; using your customers as pawns in your business battles is not good and can easily backfire.

bobolicious · August 21, 2020 10:14AM

...there may be ramifications beyond gaming for both companies...
architosh.com/2020/08/apples-threat-to-epic-will-hurt-mac-pros-in-aec/

...does this situation identify possible inequities for stakeholder (vs shareholder) corporate subscription vs persistent license models...?
Do we care that concepts such as app stores mean companies such as Apple effectively monitor every mac's software and use?
Is T2 a part of this?

edited August 2020

aderutter · August 21, 2020 12:16PM

How crass.

I think by now Epic might realise that most people are against them.

rayz2016 · August 21, 2020 12:31PM

aderutter said:

How crass.

I think by now Epic might realise that most people are against them.

Well, I don’t think they’re getting the support or wide coverage they were hoping for.

davidw · August 21, 2020 12:45PM

AppleInsider said:

..........

Apple has defended its decision, saying it "won't make an exception" for Epic to skirt App Store rules. The tech giant promises to terminate Epic's developer account and cut off its access to iOS and Mac development tools, a move that would prohibit Epic from updating the Unreal Engine on which many iOS and Mac games are built. Epic this week requested a temporary restraining order to stop Apple from following through with its threat.

Once again, that is not entirely accurate. Most news site are only reporting what Epic is saying. And epic is lying or at the very least, not telling the whole truth. And its doing as much as possible to paint Apple as the only bad guy in all this. Very few sites are reporting what is actually happening.

Epic is claiming that Apple will be terminating their developer license over their App Store violation of linking to an outside source to buy Fortnite V-bucks at a discount. Plus that Apple is retaliating against them for no other reasons. All Apple did for this violation was to ban Fortnite from the Apple App Store. As did Google from their Play Store.

The threat of terminating Epic developer license stems from other violations that Apple discovered, after Fortnite was already banned.

In a letter they sent to Epic, which few sites publishes or even mention, Apple gave the reasons for their action in terminating Epic developer license and the letter was not about Epic violating the Apple App Store agreement by including an outside link to buy V-bucks at a discount with-in the Fortnite app.

this from macrumor https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-threatens-to-terminate-epic-games-developer-accounts-on-august-28.2250375/

The letter Apple sent reads .....

>Upon further review of the activity associated with your Apple Developer Program membership, we have identified several violations of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement. Therefore, your Apple Developer Program account will be terminated if the violations set forth below are not cured within 14 days. [...]

If your membership is terminated, you may no longer submit apps to the App Store, and your apps still available for distribution will be removed. You will also lose access to the following programs, technologies, and capabilities:

- All Apple software, SDKs, APIs, and developer tools
- Pre-release versions of iOS, iPad OS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS
- Pre-release versions of beta tools such as Reality Composer, Create ML, Apple Configurator, etc.
- Notarization service for macOS apps
- App Store Connect platform and support (for example, assistance with account transition, password reset, app name issues)
- TestFlight
- Access to provisioning portal for certificate generation, and provisioning profile generation
- Ability to enable Apple services in-app (i.e. Apple Pay, CloudKit, PassKit, Music Kit, HomeKit, Push Notifications, Siri Shortcuts, Sign in with Apple, kernel extensions, FairPlay Streaming)
- Access to Apple-issued keys for connecting to services such as MusicKit, DeviceCheck, APNs, CloudKit, Wallet
- Access to Developer ID signing certificates and Kernel Extension signing certificates
- Developer Technical Support
- Participation in Universal App Quick Start Program, including the right to use the Developer Transition Kit (which must be returned to Apple)
- Engineering efforts to improve hardware and software performance of Unreal Engine on Mac and iOS hardware; optimize Unreal Engine on the Mac for creative workflows, virtual sets and their CI/Build Systems; and adoption and support of ARKit features and future VR features into Unreal Engine by their XR team

We hope that you are able to cure your breaches of the Apple Program License Agreement and continue to participate in the program. <

i have yet to see a site that has what the letter listed as the violations that Apple stated Epic must correct. Of course, maybe bringing a suit against Apple, might be a violation of the Apple developer license agreement that can get you license revoked.

foregoneconclusion · August 21, 2020 12:48PM

Epic will end up doing what Apple asked them to do: resolve the violations so that their account is not terminated while the lawsuit moves forward. The courts aren't going to grant Epic an injunction when the previous status quo = Epic making millions on iOS.

foregoneconclusion · August 21, 2020 12:58PM

seneca72 said:

The only person I know that plays Fornite does it on a game console, so I doubt they could give a toss whether it's on iOS or not.

Mobile is definitely their smallest market in terms of total users. Consoles represent around 70% of their customer base for Fortnite.

georgebmac · August 21, 2020 1:12PM

Epic has two things going for them that, I think, will insure that don't lose in this battle (a battle which nobody will actually win):

-- Apple is the new IBM and Epic is attacking them using the same tactics Jobs used to attack IBM -- and those tactics are obviously effective.

-- Apple has fallen far behind in gaming where they, at one time, held a commanding lead. They need major, serious games to take on the major, serious players. Kicking a major player out is only going to dig that hole they're in even deeper. Apple needs Epic and, long term, Epic needs Apple.

Apple has always had the willingness and ability to cooperate with and find mutually common ground even with competitors (like Microsoft and Google) and I think that they will do so again here.

But, right now their hands are pretty well tied: Epic wants special concessions from Apple and its App Store rules while Apple is facing anti-trust attacks from other players and its own government. Their main defense for the App Store is that its rules are consistent across the board, that they are not playing favorites. If they cave to Epic and give them a special deal they feed those anti-trust attacks. Epic's timing on this is atrocious, they are putting Apple into a lose-lose situation. While their marketing campaign is brilliant, their timing is very stupid.

apple_bar · August 21, 2020 1:18PM

Apple give them until August 28, 2020 to resolved the issues with their developer’s account.

Epic know they are not going to do anything about it and their dev account will be officially gone.

Then they come with a new Season launching on August 27 a day before the kicking happening. Trying to make the few iOS users that invested in this game angry towards Apple because they can’t play the new season. Talking about: “caring and doing it for our customers”.

What a total BS on their part they just proved they didn’t want to solve anything they just wanted “my way or my way”. If the developer account gets canceled on the 28. This will be a great example to explain someone what “backfire” means.

itguyinsd · August 21, 2020 1:56PM

SpamSandwich said:

Kill their dev account now. Why wait? These guys are horrible people who made too much money too fast.

LOL! Did you miss the headline about Apple's market value worth $2 TRILLION? "Too much money too fast"? What does that even mean? Is there a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time that businesses aren't supposed to surpass?

yp101 · August 21, 2020 2:23PM

Apple has not even 50% of smart phone market share.. Include iPad maybe..
Compare to IBM?
At that time, IBM was over 90% market share of mainframe and PC combined.

Apple become richest company that does not mean they dominate the entire market.
That's the beauty of Apple marketing.
Even Google can't pull that off.

App store and market share creation = money + development time. Also continuous maintenance time and money needed.
Who pays it? Whoever wants to sell their apps in app store. End of story..

You don't want instant access of millions of Apple hardware users which that user basis created by Apple?
Well if 30% is too much for you then go some where else or create own market as Nintendo did. You can keep 100% yourselves.

mac_dog · August 21, 2020 2:35PM

I wonder if this scenario will simply prove they don’t need the App Store. This is what they would have to be doing if EVERY developer had to go on their own. Seems worth 30% to me.

foregoneconclusion · August 21, 2020 2:37PM

GeorgeBMac said:

Their main defense for the App Store is that its rules are consistent across the board, that they are not playing favorites. If they cave to Epic and give them a special deal they feed those anti-trust attacks.

Not really. It's not an antitrust violation for stores to negotiate individual deals with a variety of companies. Epic's own store gives a special rate cut to games that use the Unreal Engine, for example.

Epic Games to hold 'FreeFortnite Cup' as part of anti-Apple campaign

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