Epic Games has released a short film titled Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite to protest the restrictive App Store policies on iOS devices.
Parodying the original Apple Macintosh advertisements that compared Apple’s conglomerate rival IBM to an Orwelian future, Epic’s Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite recreation is just one part of their battle against the policies of Apple that monopolizes the iOS ecosystem.
“Epic Games has defied the App Store Monopoly,” reads the video description for Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite. “In retaliation, Apple is blocking Fortnite from a billion devices.”
Epic Games has already filed a lawsuit against Apple following the delisting of the battle royale game from iOS devices. The lawsuit, which aims to limit the monopolisation of Apple’s mobile ecosystem, comes shortly after Epic Games attempted to introduce a secondary payment method into their game that would bypass the Apple App Store and therefore the 30% App Store tax.
Epic isn’t the only company fighting against restrictive App Store policies at the moment. Both Microsoft and Google are fighting against the blocking of Project xCloud and Google Stadia streaming services and Facebook is squaring up over Apple’s removal of microgames in Facebook Gaming. All of these issues are currently being assessed by the EU who already has numerous issues with Apple’s policies.