Not too long ago, I asked how you’re feeling about Apple these days. The company is embroiled in a legal battle with Epic Games right now (and so is Google), with a lot of attention being put on the company’s guidelines, rules, and fees associated with the App Store. But, as is par for the course with most of these things, those details might be lost on the general consumer. Sure, there’s a lot of noise right now, but if you don’t actively play Fortnite some —if not most— of this stuff might go under the radar.
Unless you’re a parent of a kid who’s old enough to play the mega popular battle royale game and you happen to be an iPhone family.
Now, I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of all this. I’m not going to say either one of these companies is in the right. They are both doing what they think they need to do, and if customers get in the middle of it for a short period of time, well, that’s just how it has to be. The reality is some people aren’t going to be impacted by what happens between Epic Games and Apple at all — even when the final judgement is given to us at some point in the (probably distant) future.
That being said, I do know how popular Fortnite is. I’ve played it myself more times than I can count, at least on the Xbox. I’ve played it a handful of times on my iPhone (when that was a thing I could do) and, honestly, I can live without it. But the mobile version of the game is still popular in its own right, and both Epic Games and Apple are certainly feeling the loss right about now.
It will only get worse when the new season of the game launches later this week. iOS users aren’t going to be able to play it unless Epic Games changes its mind and starts following the App Store rules again, something it’s probably not going to do. And, since it won’t, it will continue to blame Apple for all of this and the cycle will continue.
Whether you play Fortnite on your iOS device(s), or someone else in your family does, the loss of the game on Apple’s mobile devices is huge. Of course, it is just a video game and this might not actually have an impact on anyone who isn’t even remotely interested in switching platforms. (Google did yank Fortnite from the Play Store, too, but you can still side-load the game on Android devices.) I can just imagine there have been a lot of kids out there trying to explain to their parents why, suddenly, they need the newest and best Android phone so they can keep playing their favorite game when they’re not in front of their computer or video game console.
That’s why I have to ask: are you planning on abandoning Apple’s mobile operating system in favor of Android because of all this? More to the point, is the loss of Fortnite the primary reason you’re going to switch from iOS/iPadOS? I’m definitely curious to know the answer here, so let me know!