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A Fortnite competitor PUBG is getting free sweets from Apple after Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, opposed Apple Appstore’s 30% fee cut.
Apple promoted Fortnite’s biggest competitor PlayerUnknown’s Battle Ground, aka PUBG, by placing it on the front page of Appstore. The ad: “PUBG Mobile’s New Era“ and states that the iconic battle royale is getting a total makeover.
A new era of @PUBGMOBILE is coming, featuring an overhaul of the Erangel map and a bold new look.
— App Store (@AppStore) August 28, 2020
Check out the exclusive sneak peek here. https://t.co/ZmcDm6zKQR
Apple started the marketing campaign on the same day it planned to shut down Epic Game’s developer accounts and cut the company off from iOS and Mac development tools effectively on 28 August, the day after the launch of the next season of Fortnite.
The ban means that iOS and macOS users will no longer receive updates and are unable to play Fortnite if they didn’t have it installed before the ban, as it is no longer available on the Appstore. Neither can they play with friends on different platforms.
Why are Apple and Epic at War?
On August 13, Epic Games introduced a new payment option to their massively multiplayer online game, “Epic direct payment,” in addition to Appstore on the list.
Epic Games said that the Appstore payment fee cut is a monopoly of Apple and that users can get V—bucks at a 20% discount through their new “direct payment system,” which means exactly what it says:
The users will pay directly to Epic Games, instead of first paying Apple and then Apple paying Epic Games.
Epic Games implemented the system which was strictly violating Apple Developer guidelines.
And not only Apple but Google pulled back Fortnite from the Playstore as well for the same reason Apple did(Though Android users can still go around the ban and get Fortnite through Epic’s site.)
The 30% fee cut is the official standard among digital platform holders like Microsoft, Apple and Google that these companies take in exchange for their digital store services.
It’s interesting to know that PUBG mobile version is based on Unreal Engine, a software maintained by Epic Games.
Some quick facts you should know about the mega-corporations:
- Apple earned $360 million from Fortnite before pulling it from the Appstore.
- There’s been $1.2 billion in spending on the game over that period.
- Google, meanwhile, has earned $10 million from the Play Store version of the shooter.
- Players have spent about $1.2 billion in total on passes and V-Bucks in the otherwise free-to-play game, and people have downloaded it 133.2 million times.
- Apple will make lower revenue if it agrees to Epic Games and removes in-app purchase.
- If this move doesn’t pay off, Epic might not have much choice but to come back if it wants to keep making the massive profits it has enjoyed so far.
Reference:
- https://www.androidauthority.com/apple-fortnite-ios-revenue-1148204/
- https://www.businessofapps.com/data/fortnite-statistics/#:~:text=Fortnite User Statistics,-In March 2019&text=Epic Games reported that there,game’s launch in South Korea.
- https://9to5mac.com/2020/08/14/opinion-the-apple-epic-battle-has-four-possible-outcomes-and-epic-cant-lose/
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/746230/fortnite-players/
