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“Fortnite” developer Epic Games sues both Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Google after both mobile app platforms removed the company’s popular Battle Royale title from their stores due to direct payment issues.
What happened: Neither platform allows access to “Fortnite” through their digital marketplaces.
The Epic lawsuit said Apple has become a “monster seeking to control markets, block competition and stifle innovation,” according to CNET.
“Apple is bigger, more powerful, more entrenched and more pernicious than the monopolies of yesteryear. Apple’s size and reach far exceeds that of any tech monopoly in history,” the game developer said.
See also: Apple and Google sued for removing ‘Fortnite’ from app stores
Why this is important: Apple last month became the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, even bypassing Saudi oil company Saudi Aramco. Apple has a market valuation of $ 1.9 trillion.
In its lawsuit, Epic is seeking “an injunction to allow fair competition in these two key markets which directly affect hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of thousands, if not more, of third-party application developers.”
Google, like Apple, is reducing in-app billing by 30%. While the cut is unlikely to be as bad for a big company like Epic, the large revenue shares held by companies like Apple and Google have created huge barriers for independent game developers.
Emma Maassen, Founder of Kitsune Games, said on Twitter that if companies took only 12% like Epic Games does on its storefront, its studio would not have to rely on crowdfunding to develop a new title. Other indie game developers echoed the same sentiment.
And after: The back and forth between Epic, Google and Apple has created a huge wave of emotion in the gaming community.
“Epic knows gamers have proven that if you can anger them enough and get the right hashtag in front of them, they can be effectively militarized,” wrote Rebekah Valentine, senior editor at Gameindustry.biz.
“Fortnite” screenshot courtesy of Epic Games.
© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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