Apple explains why they won’t make an exception for Fortnite

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The App Store has been a much-discussed topic in recent months. Not everyone is happy with the strict rules and Tim Cook even had to defend the platform against a commission. In fact, Apple would abuse its dominant position. Epic Games seems to share that opinion and put on the bad foot. The result is that Apple threw the most popular game of the day, Fortnite, out of the App Store.

The Battle Royal game can no longer be downloaded because Epic Games launched an alternative payment system for in-app purchases. That’s against Apple’s rules, so the game disappeared from the App Store. Epic Games then declared war on Apple’s App Store and went looking for supporters.

Now we have to wait and see which party will be the first to come closer or come up with a solution. That could take a while, because Apple and Epic Games both seem to be holding up their end. The creator of Fortnite came up with a powerful statement at the end of last week. They did a parody on a 1984 Apple Macintosh commercial with the message that they stand up to the App Store monopoly.

They won’t give in, but Apple won’t give in either. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg shared a very clear statement from Apple. The main message in this story is that Apple is not going to make an exception for Epic. Why? Because they consider their own guidelines, which are there to protect users, to be more important than Epic’s business interests.

The statement:

“The App Store is designed to be the most secure and reliable place for users and a fantastic business opportunity for all developers. The Epic is one of the most successful developers in the App Store, and has grown to become a billions-worth business for millions of iOS customers from all over the world. We would like this company to remain part of our App Developer Program and that their apps remain in the Store. The problem Epic has created for itself can easily be solved by updating their app so that it complies with the guidelines that they have agreed to and that apply to all developers. We’re not going to make an exception for Epic because we don’t think it’s right to put their business interests above the guidelines that are there to protect customers.”

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