Apple could be forced into giving up their dark side, and letting developers do what they want.
Nearly four months since losing to Epic Games in court, Apple has been served new orders by the California court over Fortnite.
Since the Epic Games vs. Apple lawsuit was served all the way back in 2020, it can be easy to lose sight over the basic facts of the case. So, just as a reminder, Apple did not ban Fortnite on the App Store. Instead, this lawsuit was over Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney’s conviction that Apple’s 30 % revenue cut from developers was unreasonable, and he decided to challenge it in the courts. Epic pulled Fortnite from the App Store themselves to argue this case in the courts.
While the initial ruling was mostly favorable to Apple, the most recent action at the start of this month was a definite win for Epic Games. California district judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers ordered Apple to allow developers to offer outside payment processors than Apple Pay, and to stop taking revenue cuts from outside payments. This order was after Epic proved that Apple was not following the judge’s orders in her last ruling, that was itself favorable to Apple.
As reported by Insider Gaming, Epic announced they would submit Fortnite for the App Store again, only to reveal a few days ago that Apple was not moving on their request. In fact, they claimed that they were deliberately not moving after they received a response on their latest legal action, a stay request so they wouldn’t have to follow Judge Rogers’ ruling. That would have come in sometime at the end of this month or anytime in June.
Epic also claimed that Apple’s inaction meant Fortnite wasn’t being allowed to return in both the US and the EU. That takes us to today, as Sweeney shared a screenshot of Judge Rogers’ show cause order. To quote Judge Rogers:
Obviously, Apple is fully capable of resolving this issue without further briefing or a hearing. However, if the parties do not file a joint notice that this issue is resolved, and this Court’s intervention is required, the Apple official who is personally responsible for ensuring compliance shall personally appear at the hearing hereby set for Tuesday, May 27, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. in the United States District Court, Northern District of California, Oakland, California, Courtroom One.
If Apple has gotten used in the past to get their way with the court of public opinion, Judge Rogers clearly doesn’t hold that kind of bias. Apple may eventually be dragged into allowing developers to bring games into the App Store in the form that developers want. That has consequences for gamers directly, as much as in the industry. Fortnite could regain the bigger market share it originally had, and companies like Xbox could offer their games directly on mobile. We wouldn’t be surprised if Sony and Nintendo themselves jumped in after them. But with all that, what happens next depends on Apple.
