The start of a battle royale? On Thursday evening, Apple banned the Fortnite video game from the App Store, its application store. A giant of the sector which counts the trifle of 250 million players in the world. It is now impossible to download it, including in France, and the application has even disappeared from the phones of those who had installed it. The reason: violation of App Store rules "which apply to all developers and are designed to make the store secure for our users," Apple told AFP.
Epic Games refuses Apple's monopoly
Because Fortnite lit the first fuse. The game's publisher, Epic Games, has gone on a crusade against Apple's monopoly in the iPhone app market. On the App Store, the rule is simple: for any payment made on an application, Apple charges a commission of 30%. But this situation is not at all to the taste of Epic Games, which openly challenged the American giant. He offered in Fortnite a paid bonus and to get it, players had the choice: ten dollars through Apple or eight bypassing the system in place.
>> Find all the newspapers of the editorial staff of Europe 1 in replay and podcast here
"Prevent 2020 from becoming '1984'"
Apple did not accept it and therefore banned the application. Except that Epic Games had planned the coup. Within a minute of the ban, the publisher filed a complaint against Apple, intending to end what it describes as "anti-competitive practices". The icing on the cake, Fortnite posted on social networks a video that imitates the famous 1984 pub of the apple brand.
Epic Games has defied the App Store Monopoly. In retaliation, Apple is blocking Fortnite from a billion devices.
Visit https://t.co/K3S07w5uEk and join the fight to stop 2020 from becoming "1984" https://t.co/tpsiCW4gqK
At the time, Apple wanted to sell the revolutionary aspect of its Macintosh against the old world of IBM. Turnaround: Today, Fortnite is trying to overthrow Apple. And in just a few minutes, the hashtag #freefortnite flourished on the web ...
Google soon threatened?
But in this looming trade and legal war, Apple will not feel alone. Google has also decided to remove Fortnite from its Play Store. However, the situation is different on the operating system of the web giant, Android, which allows developers to offer their apps through different platforms. But "for game publishers who choose to go through the Play Store, we have consistent regulations that are fair to developers and ensure store security for users," Google told AFP.