Tim Sweeney Didn't Expect a Five-Year Fortnite Ban (theverge.com) 32
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney anticipated his company's battle with Apple would create "fireworks," but he never expected Fortnite to disappear from the iOS App Store for nearly five years. When Epic deliberately violated App Store rules in 2020 by inserting its own payment system into Fortnite, Sweeney thought the resulting legal clash would be brief. "I had actually hoped that we would get an injunction against Apple blocking Fortnite and that we'd only be off for a few weeks," Sweeney told The Verge. "But the court process dragged out, and we were off for five years."
Fortnite returned to iOS last month and has quickly reclaimed its position as the top free game in the App Store, accumulating roughly 10 million downloads since May 20th. The game now offers players a choice between Epic's payment system, which provides 20% back in Epic Rewards, and Apple's traditional in-app purchase system. About 60% of users have chosen Apple's system while 40% have opted for Epic's alternative, according to Sweeney. He expects that ratio to shift toward Epic's system as more players associate payment methods with their Epic accounts.
Fortnite returned to iOS last month and has quickly reclaimed its position as the top free game in the App Store, accumulating roughly 10 million downloads since May 20th. The game now offers players a choice between Epic's payment system, which provides 20% back in Epic Rewards, and Apple's traditional in-app purchase system. About 60% of users have chosen Apple's system while 40% have opted for Epic's alternative, according to Sweeney. He expects that ratio to shift toward Epic's system as more players associate payment methods with their Epic accounts.
If you're going to be a shitty hipster... (Score:5, Insightful)
Free to play. Pay to win.
I know ./ often devolves into a club of old men who complain about things the kids are into...but FFS, play the game before you complain. Fortnite is the best major game I've seen in regards to fairness. The money, V-bucks, is just for cosmetics from what I've seen. My son and I play it all the time and win often. I know of no advantage anyone gets from paying money.
Look yeah...big corporations are evil and shit...but it's a game many find fun...not your jam?...cool...but you can't deny that it's a fun game to many. However, I can't imagine a game being much better than fortnite...it gives you unreal tournament type fun without the gore...basically softening the violence...it runs on many platforms and mediocre hardware. You can play all you like for free against a large community....and it's funded by others buying stupid skins...which as an old man, I just don't get...but hey, give me a free fun game and it's the smallest of sacrifices as far as I am concerned.
If you're going to be an insufferable hipster and shit on something merely for being popular, at least get your facts straight. It's certainly not for everyone, but if you wanted to do a teen-friendly shooter for the largest possible audience, especially both boys and girls, it would be hard to do a better job. If it's not "alpha enough" for you, go on to Call of Duty for some testosterone overload.
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Another good one is Magic The Gathering Arena. I have been playing for years and have collected hundreds of cards and paid zero dollars. As a matter of fact, I did a buy-in on an arena (paid with in-game currency) which then allows you to play in the same arena for as long as you want. I have been playing on the same buy-in for over a year now. I have never seen an interstitial ad.
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Sadly, Fortnite is plagued by cheaters that epic will not ban because they are 'customers' which makes sense because the cheaters just recreate a free account; however, Epic could easily address this by matching the cheaters with other cheaters and by making its matchmaking fair, as in SBMM instead of EOMM. Let's face facts' Epic is just using honest players, including kids, as targets for hackers, cheaters, streamers and sweats, and making millions doing so, it's clearly unethical and it's clearly abusive,
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Umm, dude is still a billionaire doubt he can get upset about anything.
Save more by spending more? (Score:3)
I seem to remember that Sweeney claimed that customers were going to save big if only Epic could be freed from the shackles of Apple's 30% transaction fee.
Instead you get charged the same, but you can get some of that back if you spend more money on the Epic platform:
Epic's payment system... provides 20% back in Epic Rewards.
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I seem to remember that Sweeney claimed that customers were going to save big if only Epic could be freed from the shackles of Apple's 30% transaction fee.
Instead you get charged the same, but you can get some of that back if you spend more money on the Epic platform:
Epic's payment system... provides 20% back in Epic Rewards.
That's how corporations define "saving money" to the consumer. "Think of the money you'll save when you spend more with us!" "Cashback" that can only be spent on same-company product is advertising win, and non-wary consumer bait.
Re: Save more by spending more? (Score:2)
I was shot down on this site for predicting this asking the simple question: what evidence is there to believe that consumers would pay less. I think some people got too caught up in somebody trying to stick it to Apple. At best, Epic might offer a small discount over Apple to try to tempt people over to their payment system. But it will never be more than 30% because then there is no point and they have the cost of running their own store and payment processing. Actually, it was always less than 30% be
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Is there any liability for Apple here? A 5 year ban must have cost Epic a lot of lost revenue.
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Why? It was a choice: they could have complied while the court case went on.
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But even then wouldn't there be the 30% Apple Tax and potential lost sales due to the higher price?
Re: Save more by spending more? (Score:2)
30% is a BS number because this is only for the first year. This is also offset by the costs of running an App Store and processing financial transactions. But thatâ(TM)s assuming they win the lawsuit (which they did). The costs of this are irrelevant compared to choosing not to do business at all.
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what did apple do wrong?
Willfully engaged in anticompetitive behavior after having been warned that their behavior was anticompetitive.
five years (Score:2)
Back the train up... (Score:1)
Answer: people with lives (Score:3)
What kind of idiot plays a fast-paced, multiplier, ultra high precise, snap-timing, PVP FPS game on a 6" screen with their giant finger? Like what kind of delusional mental patient does that? And assuming they don't have protections against this, my S23 can just plug a C-port mouse into it and use a cursor in almost any app. Weirdly, not Pokemon Go. Who thought this was a good idea? Ever heard of bluetooth emulators? Might as well not even have a leader board at that point.
Ever get laid and find yourself bored at your girl's house afterwards?...ever get stuck waiting at a friend's house?... Ever get bored on a train commute?...flight?...waiting in a doctor's office?...just being stuck someplace and having nothing but a phone?
Without a doubt, the PC provides the best experience, followed by the console (took me a decade to learn how to aim with a controller as well as a mouse), but...sometimes you're not home. Sometimes you're stuck someplace away from home and don't have
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Why not play something other than a twitch FPS, though?
In App Payments (Score:2)
Oblig. Monty Python (Score:2)
Tim Sweeney Didn't Expect a Five-Year Fortnite Ban
Nobody expects the five-year Fortnite ban! [youtube.com]
Didn't expect (Score:2)
I bet he didn't expect some kind of Spanish Inquisition either, although that's understandable [youtu.be]
I put my sunchair in your garden ... (Score:1)
... and did not expect to be kicked out? That sweeny guy s kinda off this world isn't he?
He also had expectations for the Epic store (Score:2)