Epic Games took to Apple and Google in a very public way last week to protest what it believes is monopolistic app store policies. But Epic was prepared in part for the battle, as it knows how to make a spectacle, having already drawn massive events into the game, such as the appearance of a giant rolling cube and a volcanic eruption. The studio applied tactics that perfected it to hype these events in its disputes with two of tech’s biggest companies.
If you have not experienced any of them Fortnite’s events, they are enormous in scope. Last summer, a towering robot and a giant kaiju monster fought in a showdown on an island. In June, a mysterious device teleported players between realities and finally turned the ever-threatening storm into an enormous wall of water. The most famous event sucked the world of the whole game in a black hole for almost two days. And millions of people are voting for: the first Travis Scott Fortnite concert in April had more than 12 million attendees, according to Epic.
While the events were all exciting, they were not always easy to watch. For some of Fortnite’s first events, such as a rocket launch in June 2018, other players could kill you while you were watching the show. But a while ago, Epic activated a special mode just for events, advising players to get involved early, and kicking the shot out while the show takes place. And the new non-violent Party Royale mode has given Epic the chance to attend events on a different kind of scale, such as full concerts, views of the show We the people, and broadcasts of Christopher Nolan films.
Epic typically puts a lot of effort into hyping events by posting in-game notifications and on social media to let players know something is coming. And when the events happen, they start at exactly the same time for everyone Fortnite’s millions of players on each platform Fortnite runs on (that includes the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, and – for now – iOS and Android).
That time spent marketing their in-game event marketing all led to last week. Epic used everything it knew about getting millions of people to watch its events to pull off Fortnite’s biggest event yet – a showdown with Apple and Google.
It all started when Epic published a blog post Thursday morning announcing a 20 percent permanent price drop on V-Bucks, Fortnite’s virtual currency in-game that was available directly on any platform. For mobile players, however, there was a small difference. Epic let you buy V-Bucks at the new cheaper rate by going through your own payment system, or you could use Apple and Google’s payment systems to get them at a higher price. That direct payment system was in conflict with app store policies on both mobile platforms.
On the afternoon of August 13, Apple banned Fortnite. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman tweeted about it at 14:53 ET. Exactly one minute later, Epic announced a new “Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite” short that clearly looked after Apple’s famous “1984” ad, which she said would premiere in the game around 4PM ET in Party Royale. Twenty-nine minutes later dat, Epic announced it to prosecute Apple and link directly to the legal papers in a tweet from the most important Fortnite Twitter account, which has more than 11 million followers.
That exact timing of the video and the trial revealed that Epic was ready at this exact moment. And the fact that the short premiere would be in Party Royale meant that there would be no way for players to kill while watching it.
Epic made sure that players were aware of the shortcomings as well. I jumped in Fortnite about 30 minutes before it premiered, and before I even got into the lobby, the game showed me an in-game ad for the event. When I was once in a party Royale game, I accidentally went to a section of the island with a concert stage and a giant screen, but luckily the screen flashed a map pointing to the other side of the island. I was looking at the fact that Epic the card tweeted, ek.
And sure enough, when I pointed to where the map was, there was other gigantic screen that counted after the premiere. (Countdowns, by the way, are table tasks for one Fortnite barren.)
The short, which was only 48 seconds long, was impressive. Epic regularly makes movie shorts for new updates and skins, and the studio used its filmmaking skills to glorify Apple’s famous commercial. Epic remake created iconic shots from the ad featuring characters that would be instantly recognizable Fortnite fans and portrayed the Big Brother-esque character that Apple represented as a literal talking apple.
The short ended with a hashtag – #FreeFortnite – which Epic then used as the title of a blog explaining Epic’s position on Apple pulling Fortnite. In the post, Epic pointed out that iOS players are currently unable to play the upcoming next season of the game (which will likely be full of major updates), and urged players to “join the fight against @AppStore on social media with #FreeFortnite. ”
Epic then briefly launched the “Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite” on its Twitter, Twitch and YouTube channels – a trick it also uses for the black hole event – where it had thousands of viewers across all three platforms. But while the live streams of Black Hole were a way to build hype, Epic streamed the “Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite” movie repeatedly to try to rally support for his cause.
Although this was a detailed and well-planned campaign against Apple, Epic used many of these tactics only a week earlier to promote the addition of drivable cars Fortnite. That update was accompanied by a cinematic brief, in-game notifications, tweets, and a blog post on Epic’s website.
Interestingly, Epic did not turn out much of his playbook against Google, despite the fact that Google also drew Fortnite of the Play Store and Epic action in response. There was no funny short mocking Google’s old “do not be mean” motto. Epic did not announce on Twitter that it had submitted Google. The studio the tweetje about the game being taken down from the Play Store, but that tweet was polite compared to what Epic said to Apple.
The quieter reaction of Epic to Google may be because you can still play Fortnite on Android devices by downloading it directly from Epic or from Samsung’s app store – something that Epic suggests on their own website. Apple seems to be primarily the primary target of Epic.
And although the conflict with Apple has continued to escalate – Apple has threatened to gain Epic’s access to Apple’s developers by August 28, unless the studio makes changes to Fortnite – there has not been a sequel or a new in-game event yet. But a big part of Fortnite’s success is the consistent creativity that brings Epic to the game, so maybe Epic has more in store to try to put pressure on Apple.
If you are reading this, Epic, I will give you one idea: free a skin for the apple man.
