Nothing on the App Store, the game Fortnite would have generated $ 1.2 billion. And Apple charges a commission huge on these revenues.
© Epic Games
After Spotify, it is Epic, the developer of the game Fortnite, which will rebel against the tax from 30 % to Apple. Fortnite is a free-to-play. However, players are encouraged to buy virtual goods in order to improve the gaming experience. And when a player makes purchases from an iPhone, Apple takes its 30% commission for purchases made by the players.
This practice is increasingly criticized by the developers and last week, Epic has decided to use a system of direct payment to allow players to not pass by the payment system of the App Store and thus avoid paying the ” tax ” to Apple. But this did not please the firm from Cupertino, which has decided to ban Fortnite from its app store.
War has been declared and Epic has decided to lodge a complaint against Apple, but against Google, which has also banned Fortnite from the Play Store (however, players can continue to install the game on their Android smartphones without going through the store of Google).
Hundreds of millions of dollars at stake
If the case takes so widespread, it is because the game Fortnite generates colossal profits. And the 30 % taken by Apple are a source of significant revenues. We speak of hundreds of millions of dollars.
In an article published Friday, our colleagues at Business Insider reported the estimates provided by Sensor Tower of the revenue generated by Fortnite, as well as commissions generated by Apple and Google. After that, nothing on the App Store, the players on Fortnite have already spent more than $ 1.2 billion. And the commission taken by Apple would be estimated to 360 million dollars, in total.
Fortnite : 10 info in order to understand the conflict with Google and Apple
Revenues generated on Google’s Play Store, before the ban, are much lower. In fact, for a long time, Fortnite was not available on the shop Google. But the players could install the game on their Android smartphones, or through another shop, or you can install directly the software (which is possible on the platform of Google, but not Apple).
Fortnite has arrived on the Google Play Store in the month of April and has generated 10 million dollars in expense of the players. And the commission charged by the firm of Mountain View is estimated to be $ 3 million. For the moment, it is not known how this conflict with Apple and Google will solve it. But in any case, banishing Fortnite, the two giants of digital lose a source of income very important.
Otherwise, it should be noted that after this case, Facebook has also decided to publicly criticize the tax from 30 % to Apple. The number one social network has just launched a feature that allows SMES to initiate online events pay. And it will charge no commission on the payments. However, for transactions that will occur on iPhone, SMES will only receive 70 % of the revenue generated, because Apple takes a commission of 30 %. And Facebook has decided to mention this explicitly in payments on iOS.