As Fortnite gears up for its return to the U.S. App Store this week, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney revealed in an interview with Business Insider‘s Peter Kafka that the popular builder-shooter’s absence from Apple platforms cost the company over $1 billion USD (about $1.38 billion CAD).
Apple originally booted Fortnite off the App Store back in August 2020 after Epic introduced a direct payment option for in-app purchases that skirted Apple’s 30% commission and violated App Store rules. Epic, in turn, filed a lawsuit against the tech giant.
The events triggered a years-long legal battle against the 30% “Apple Tax” and Apple’s restrictions on app distribution and payment processing that kept Fortnite off the App Store. Epic scored a win in the EU last year when regulators forced Apple to allow third-party app stores and payment systems under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), letting Epic re-launch Fortnite for iPhones in the region.
An even bigger win came last week when a California court found Apple in “willful violation” of a 2021 injunction that prohibited the company from blocking rival payment methods in iOS apps. The decision and its accompanying mandates could go a long way in bringing Epic’s years-long standoff against Apple to a head.
According to Sweeney, fighting Apple cost Epic more than $100 million USD ($137.5 million CAD) in legal fees. However, the Epic CEO said the company has missed out on several times that in terms of revenue.
Fortnite has been off the App Store for more than four years and four months. “There’s been a billion dollars or more of impact to Epic in this time,” Sweeney told Business Insider‘s Peter Kafka. Fortnite made about $300 million from iOS users during the two years it was available on the platform, per Sweeney, and the game’s player count would likely only have gone up if it hadn’t been booted off.
Even so, Sweeney noted that it was all worth it. “I think freedom cannot be purchased at too dear a price,” the Epic CEO said.
“The world needs to change here. And if it doesn’t change, then you’re just going to have Apple and Google extracting all of the profit from all apps forever. And there will be no proper digital economy. It will just be monopolization.”
As for Fortnite‘s iOS comeback, Sweeney said he’s confident the game will be able to return to iPhones later this week despite Apple’s plans to appeal U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’s ruling. “I would be very surprised if Apple decided to brave the geopolitical storm of blocking a major app from iOS,” he said.
Sweeney has also extended Apple an olive branch that would end all ongoing litigation between the two companies if Apple extends the U.S. court-mandated “Apple-tax-free framework” to the rest of the world.
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Question is why does Sweeney want to settle now? May be because the ruling could go the other way if the appeals court had a right wing appointed judge?