In the lawsuit, Epic Games accused Apple of abusing its market position to crush developers.

The publisher claims the removal of Fortnite is an example of Apple using its power to impose unreasonable restrictions and maintain a 100% monopoly on in-app payment processing. iOS illegally.

Epic Games even released a short video a few hours later via a slideshow feature inside the Fortnite game, with the aim of announcing the incident to the entire Fortnite community around the world.

The short video shows a character in the game turning his back and walking out of a crowded auditorium, accompanied by a caption that reads: "Epic Games was against the monopoly of the App Store. In retaliation, Apple is blocking Fortnite on more than 1 billion devices globally, "with the hashtag #FreeFornite (free to Fortnite).

Millions of Fortnite players around the world watched the short video shown by Epic Games through an in-game feature.

Earlier on August 14, Epic Games introduced a new payment mechanism in the Fortnite game through the latest update.

This change allows players to buy virtual currency directly inside the app, thereby bypassing Apple’s previous in-app purchase framework.

Immediately following this incident, Apple removed the Fortnite game from the App Store, accompanied by a statement: Epic Games enabled an in-app feature that has not been reviewed for the purpose of violating App Store rules in in-app payments. Applies to any developer selling digital goods or services.

It comes just days after Apple received criticism for its refusal to Microsoft xCloud, a cloud game-streaming app, from the App Store, as well as Stadia, a Google gaming platform.

Apple received criticism after removing Google Stadia and Microsoft xCloud for violating App Store policies.

Developers of other well-known apps, notably Spotify, have voiced their support for Epic Games in its fight with Apple.

"We applaud Epic Games’ decision to go against Apple and shed light on the company’s abuse of its dominant position," a Spotify representative said in an interview with Recode.

He also emphasized that "Apple’s unfair practices have been detrimental to competitors and offended by consumers for too long"; and "making sure the iOS platform operates competitively and fairly is an urgent task with far-reaching implications".

In 2019, Epic Games’ Fortnite was named the highest-grossing free mobile game of the year, with revenue reaching $ 1.8 billion. This also makes Fortnite the highest-grossing video game in history.

This cult game in the "fighting for survival" genre was released in late 2017 and has quickly become a phenomenon in the global gaming community. To date, Fornite has about 350 million players, and more than 1 billion installs.

In it, although it is a free game, most of the participants spend at least 10 USD to upgrade the Battle Pass to receive in-game money called V-Bucks, which can be used to buy the site. costumes, accessories, choreography ... for your character. The money Fortnite makes is also entirely thanks to the virtual item transactions.