Apple has long criticized for its handling of its application stores, especially on iOS, but it was epic games that really triggered the chain of events that finally broke the camel’s back, so to speak. Apple had to make adjustments and concessions over the past year to appease developers, regulators and courts, but one of his greatest losses occurred there is barely two weeks in Korea of the South. Now the Fortnite developer hardly tests these new waters by asking for the return of the popular game to the App Store, at least in South Korea.
One of the main points of conflict on the alleged monopolistic behavior of Apple on the App Store is how it strongly forces the developers to play by the rules that would, at the end, give them 30% of All application sales, integrated purchases and subscriptions. Epic games, which has always been criticized for this practice of revenue reduction 30/70, launched the Hornet Nest last year when it quietly added a payment system to Fortnite which bypassed the only sanctioned methods by Apple and Google. Unsurprisingly, Fortnite has been expelled from the platform’s official application stores, launching prosecutions and investigations into the applications industry in general.
Apple has always been firm on its integrated payment policy, but it has encountered its greatest defeat in South Korea, where a new bill has been adopted that bypassed that. If signed in the law, Apple, Google and other App Store owners will be legally forced to allow third-party payment systems or face fines. Of course, Apple is not happy with that, but Epic games tries to hit him while it’s down.
On his Twitter account, Fortnite has boldly announced that Epic Games asked Apple restore his developer account. He wants to do fornite available again on the Apple App Store in South Korea, where he can do what he has always wanted to do in the first place. It will use its own payment system and will take at least all the benefits of integrated users purchases that do not want to use the Apple’s integrated system.
How Apple will respond to this request will be interesting to see. The law is new and always not tested and applies only to a specific market. Pro-Apple lobbyists in the United States attempt to use all tactics to convince South Korea not to get off this path. For now, however, Apple may have to comply, winning epic games and its allies an epic victory.