Apple and epic clashed in court for the very first time.
And iOS gamers ended up being the losers.
No Marvel season for you.
Okay, here's what's going on Apple and epic faced off in an emergency hearing to decide if Apple could yank Epic Games off the App Store entirely.
We absolutely could do that.
But we don't want to do that.
This is about our customers trusting us to create a safe private space to give us 30% of their money.
We weren't even nice enough to give epic 14 days to fix their mess.
That's a little thing we here at Apple like to call courage.
First time hearing lasted about an hour over zoom and it was way more entertaining than any emergency hearing has any right to be, mostly due to the no BS District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who was Not there to play games with either legal team.
Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take screenshots or otherwise record or rebroadcast the proceedings.
So here's a little reenactment of what happened.
Good afternoon, I'm District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers no relation to Steve.
I do not like shenanigans chicane, array tomfoolery or malarkey in my courtroom.
Make your cases epic, you first.
Thanks, your honor, I hope you'll like surprises because today I brought some very important precedent, I said no shenanigans.
Proceed.
Whoa, okay.
Okay.
In that case Apple is totally retaliating against us and they're gonna do us irreparable harm if they revoke our developer privileges and unreal engine.
Fortnite isn't just a game, it's a social environment.
People watch concerts in there and stuff.
And all the while there is a pandemic happening out there, people are finding human connection while they Battle Royale.
We need Fortnite in the App Store.
And Apple, what say you?
Thank you, your honor.
First off, we want customers to know They should be able to ride their sharks and buy their dances.
fortnight customers on iOS are also Apple customers.
Epic did this to themselves and if you don't let us ban their games and it's unreal engine feed be able to profit without paying us.
Plus, other companies might get the same idea To bypass our payment system, and that's not okay.
They agreed to the same contract, every other company agrees to and they do not get special treatment.
We let them get away with this.
The idea could spread like a virus Wow, slightly ghoulish reference there pal, but Okay, sure.
So epic.
Why don't you just roll back the hotfix two before you broke the rules until the trials over.
You have unclean, Clean hands here.
You knew exactly what you were doing when you push the update that included direct payments
So like, yikes a little bit we totally could do that.
But also we don't want to do that.
It's the principle of the thing.
Previous antitrust cases suggest having unclean hands when it comes to define the monopolies is Totally okay.
I think it was once Socrates who said he who has the antitrusted shall get mega busted.>> Ha.
I don't think he said that.
And appl, why can't you just leave epics games on the App Store and then have them owe you a mountain of money if the trial ends in your favor?
We absolutely could do that.
But we don't want to do that.
This is about our customers trusting us to create a safe private space to give us 30% of their money.
We weren't even nice enough to give epic 14 days to fix their mess.
That's a little thing we here at Apple like to call courage.
Courage.
Right?
Right.
Or revoking Unreal Engine negatively impact third parties?.
Epic did it to themselves.
You did not answer my question at all.
My god yes or no?.
All right.
All right There's probably a nonzero chance maybe.>> FYI Your Honour players aren't already reenacting the Boston Tea Party and grimy greens and tossing Apple tea in the harbour.
Can you even believe it?
Hashtag free Fortnite.
Epic.
You're going to war here with Apple.
What about Google?
Yeah, those guys we super sued them too.
Okay, this is already exhausting.
You're both making some very good points And both making some net grade points.
Epic you're worth bajillions of dollars and Apple you're worth contrarians of dollars.
Nobody's going broke here.
This isn't a slam dunk for either of you Apple, nobody can buy an iPhone from another company.
Plus, they can't buy apps on iPhones from any other company either.
On the other hand, you epic knew the rules and chose to break them knowing that there would be consequences.
You're demanding fortnight and your other games be allowed to keep direct payments that entirely cut Apple out of transactions live and effective until this whole trial is over.
Basically having your cash and eating it too, I guess what are you doing?
Well, Support nine kids are so weird.
This is an emergency request.
So I'm deciding to keep things status quo until either of you can make better arguments.
Otherwise, epic fortnight is still off the App Store and Apple You are not allowed to revoke related but separate developer accounts to punish epic specifically no banning Unreal Engine.
File some briefings in September and then we'll do a full non emergency hearing to sort all this out.
Until then stop arguing or I will turn this entire court zoom around and then nobody's gonna be happy.
Courts adjourned.
[SOUND] Okay, so maybe it didn't go down exactly like that call it freedom license.
Epic and Apple's lawyers are incredibly professional and judge Rogers obviously takes her job and her case Cases very seriously, but it was still pretty entertaining to watch.
What does this all mean for you?
If you're playing Fortnight on iOS or Android it's probably time to check out other platforms if you're itching to play the new season which has a big Marvel theme.
Fortunately fortnight is cross platform.
So if you're able to play on console or PC your progress your purchases your unlock should transfer fine whenever fortnight makes it back to those mobile operating systems.
Terrible inconvenience but still pretty annoying if you only have access to fortnight on mobile Hi, I'm so sorry in my opinion, you are the real victim here.
For Game Studios using Unreal Engine though i do wonder what they might do if they are in the earliest stages of development and don't know which SDK they're going to go with using Unreal Engine is certainly Kind of a risk at this point as this trial won't be settled until at least mid 2021, maybe 2022 even and there's no guarantee that fortnight Unreal Engine or even Epic Games itself will be in the same.
Last the powerful position that it's in right now when it chose to pick this fight ethics lawyers already mentioned some developers were fleeing Unreal Engine during the hearing, and I'm not sure how Apple's threat to me Revoke it will affect the larger Game Dev community when they're choosing between unreal or unity to make their next game, even though the judge protected Unreal Engine.
Now, that's no guarantee that she will protect it in the future.
To be fair, she didn't seem very clear about banning Unreal Engine being a retaliatory overreach on Apple's part.
So unless Apple has some bonkers absolutely ironclad legal argument as to why Epic Games and Unreal Engine needs to, To be banned, it's probably safe, probably.
But it doesn't change the fact that developers now understand epic is willing to take risks with their livelihoods, which might be tough for a small studio to get on board with, when it's that kind of long haul fight that maybe they don't have the money for and aren't willing to take that risk.
But look, hey, regardless of what you're doing, maybe you're just here to watch all the fireworks.
And if so, start stockpiling your popcorn now because I don't think either company's gonna get out of this one unscathed.
We'll keep updating you on this epic battle as it unfolds in the courts.
No idea what's happening.
Well please feel free to check out my previous video where I explained what went down and how we got here.
Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any future court date recaps.
I do this all for you.
Until then please tell me down in the comments what your favorite costume is in fall, guys.
Yes, I said ball guys, boom, let's windows crowds
