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Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store

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1704 points ardit33 | 4 comments | 13 Aug 20 19:03 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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andreasley ◴[13 Aug 20 20:37 UTC] No.24148645[source]▶
Epic Games has filed a lawsuit [1] and published a Fortnite-themed parody of Apple's "1984" [2] to get some publicity for it.

[1] https://cdn2.unrealengine.com/apple-complaint-734589783.pdf

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euiSHuaw6Q4

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js2 ◴[13 Aug 20 22:04 UTC] No.24150052[source]▶
I like the parody, but it's not really equivalent.

The original Apple parody was to convince consumers to switch from one platform (PC) to a different platform (Mac).

Now, maybe you believe Apple, in the form of iOS, has become Big Brother. Fine, in that case, Epic should provide its own gaming platform.

But Epic isn't trying to destroy Big Brother here. It still wants to run on Big Brother's platform. It just doesn't want to give up any revenue to do so.

Shrug.

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monadic2 ◴[14 Aug 20 02:24 UTC] No.24152487[source]▶
It stopped being Big Brother's platform when they sold their first phone to a consumer.
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1. Godel_unicode ◴[14 Aug 20 03:12 UTC] No.24152845[source]▶
Except it didn't. People wish that this was true, for lots of freedom related reasons. But it's not. The proof is pretty clear in the situation we're seeing now; if you actually controlled your iPhone, you and Epic could decide not to involve Apple. You cannot do that.
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2. NoPicklez ◴[14 Aug 20 03:36 UTC] No.24153016[source]▶
Well how do you define how much control is enough? You can still download Fortnite and put it on your device, just through the app store.

If every Tom, Dick and Harry could setup an app store for the iPhone, this doesn't necessarily give me more control. It might mean I am then forced to use the Epic platform for all Epic related products. Now how do I know that Epic have appropriately vetted their application? What if they start producing applications for the iPhone which are terrible?

This is a big problem on the Google store whereby plenty of the apps are rubbish.

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3. Godel_unicode ◴[14 Aug 20 06:18 UTC] No.24154348[source]▶
> You can still download Fortnite

I invite you to read even the headline of the article this thread is about.

4. ◴[14 Aug 20 09:09 UTC] No.24155595[source]▶