Highlights
- According to Epic Games, Fortnite’s App Store ban cost the company $1 billion in revenue.
- Millions more were spent on legal fees in lawsuits against Apple and Google.
- CEO Tim Sweeney is convinced that the losses were worth it, as the app is now available again in the app stores in the EU.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says the company has lost $1 billion in its efforts to get Fortnite back on mobile app stores. That doesn’t include legal fees for the lawsuits against Apple and Google, which have added “hundreds of millions” to the cost.
This is according to Game File’s interview with Sweeney, which was conducted when Fortnite finally returned to Apple’s App Store in the European Union. This is thanks to the fact that the Epic Games Store was made available on the platforms and players can once again access Fortnite on their devices.
Epic spent millions on lawsuits against Apple and Google and lost $1 billion in Fortnite revenue
Despite the huge legal fees, Sweeney argues that much of Epic’s losses were due to Fortnite being unavailable on major platforms for so long, meaning the company couldn’t make money from players who don’t have a PC or home console but would be interested in playing the battle royale if it were more accessible.
However, Sweeney also argues that it was worth the cost, even though the dispute dragged on for so many years.
“If we’ve spent a billion dollars so far, that’s a small price to pay for the future freedom of our company and everyone else who wants to participate in the market,” Sweeney told Game File.
Currently, Fortnite’s return to Apple mobile devices is limited to the EU. This is because new regulations force companies operating in the region to make third-party app stores available on their devices. Because of this, Apple must allow anyone in the EU to access the Epic Games Store on their Apple devices and thus be able to play Fortnite.
However, in other regions this is not a requirement, so users elsewhere are currently out of luck. It remains to be seen whether this rule will be rolled out across the mobile market.
Fortnite
Fortnite started as a tower defense game and has now become one of the biggest video games on the market. Its battle royale mode dominates pop culture, featuring concerts from megastars and crossovers with virtually every brand imaginable, from Marvel to the NFL.
