‘Fortnite’ places Cringe with its anti-Apple tournament, skin and merch

The more I see how Epic plans this whole Apple ban and lawsuit as a sort of front-facing circus, the less I’m on board with it. And it now culminates in a spectacle that to me, just comes as … kind of embarrassing.

That would be the #FreeFortnite Cup, an event on August 23 that offers prizes to players, ranging from big ticket items like gaming PCs or consoles to the new skin of Fortnite’s “Tart Tycoon”, a cut jab at Apple, and a “Free Fortnite” hat with a play on Apple’s rainbow logo and ‘Think Different’ font (the hat is not sold, it’s just a price).

I gewoan just hate this, and I do not understand the game of Epic here.

While I will not go so far as to say that Epic ‘arms kids’ because it sounds too bad, I really do not get what Epic wants the end result to be here, and with an event like this and this goofy anti-Apple campaign, it gives the impression that they are not taking this fight so seriously, nor are they prepared for the long road ahead.

Over in the real world, Fortnite’s new season ends in a week and iOS players will not be able to play the new season at all, as Fortnite has been banned from the app store for deliberately violating TOS, and the game cannot be updated more. In addition, Apple is about to cut all Epic developer accounts and tools at about the same time, affecting not only Fortnite, but potentially any game or app that uses Epic’s Unreal engine that cannot be supported by Epic as the actions of Apple happen. Epic has already filed its first lawsuit against Apple for banning Fortnite, but now they have had to file a lawsuit to try to stop Apple’s larger sweepstakes against them, and there’s no word yet on how that will go. .

Meanwhile, this public anti-Apple campaign is doing … what, exactly? The idea seems to be that a bunch of kids are trying to sign up for Fortnite on their iPhones at the beginning of season 4 and they can not get the new pass, so they … are complaining to their parents? Their parents … call Apple? Complaints online? I really do not understand the call to action here, and everything Epic seems to do highlights the futility of their fight, however correct they may be in the way of Apple’s monopolistic position.

Epic has indicated the only way they will put Fortnite back on iOS is if Apple agrees to reduce its “greedy” 30% cut in app revenue, not just for Fortnite, but for the entire store. Although, yes, that sector standard of 30% is too high and too oppressive and poor, what is the realistic chance that Apple will meet “public pressure” here? Zero. It’s zero. And the possibility of a court ruling that she have to reduce the 30% number? Not zero, maybe, but if it ever is the happen, this case will probably take months or even years to resolve, and it’s something Apple just does not cover, with that 30% cut in place in app stores of Google, Steam, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony and more.

In short, Epic wants to change the whole sector. Yes, that is a noble cause and I support it. And yet, with Epic on the verge of losing tens of millions a month in mobile revenue and its developers on the verge of losing support on iOS for Unreal, this pre-conceivably priced anti-Apple tournament and skin- and merch-útrol show deaf and senseless. It makes this seem like an attention-seeking vanity project instead of an important moment for the sector. If Epic fights for all games and apps, then why is this campaign #FreeFortnite, at all? It’s broader than that, and yet Epic does not really explain it or make it clear outside the text of the lawsuit that no one will read.

Even the aesthetics of this worry me, with Epic trying to rally its young player base with … an Apple ad parody from 1984 and now a parody of the rainbow logo that was last used in 1999. All this just so … lame.

It sucks, because I fundamentally believe in everything Epic says in relation to Apple and this 30% cut there and elsewhere. It hinders creativity and entrepreneurship and these companies have way, too much power over their closed ecosystems.

But I really do not get the impression that Epic is prepared in the long run here, because an event like this implies some fantastic dream that people will complain on social media until Apple agrees to give tens of billions in revenue by volunteering to reduce their app store cut. Or at best, this has absolutely nothing to do with the public, and the court forces them to too, but who knows how many years away that would be, if it even happens.

The way Epic treats this throws me the wrong way, even if fundamentally, I agree with her. And that’s kind of a problem.

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube en Instagram. Picking up my sci-fi novels Herokiller en Herokiller 2, and read my first series, The Earthborn Trilogy, which is also on audiobook.