We are now on day seven of the Epic versus Apple trial that will determine the fate of mobile gaming as we know it. On one side, Epic argues that Apple is a de-facto monopoly that uses its power to extract wealth from developers and stifle competition. On the Apple side, it says that none of that is true and it’s just following the same business model as digital sales platforms everywhere. A judge will decide the truth.
Eventually. For now, we’re just marinating in all the juicy details from this very public fight between these two tech giants. One of those details is a delicious double entendre that is now on the record.
When a lawyer asked Epic marketing director Matthew Weissinger what platform has the best growth potential for Fortnite, he replied with a single word: “mobile.” When asked why, according to GamesIndustry.biz he gave this completely honest answer.
“I mentioned it on Friday, but we’ve reached basically full penetration on console and mobile offers the biggest growth opportunity… Everybody has a mobile device and they have it with them all the time. Not everybody has a console and not everybody has a gaming PC.”
Weissinger added that Fortnite had 2.5 million active users on iOS before Apple slapped that game right off its storefront, and that number was just under 10% of the game’s total of around 30 million active users.
That doesn’t sound like a lot, but Weissinger was quick to point out that Fortnite’s removal from the App Store harmed Epic “in a number of ways,” most notably by severing “friend connections [and] social connections’’ between players. Not everyone could be playing on a console or PC, but everyone has a phone that they could play Fortnite wherever and whenever they want.
All this was to show just how important iOS is for Epic, which should come as little surprise given the fact that they’re in the middle of suing each other for billions upon billions of dollars, but I guess you need to establish the facts in a court of law even if they’re obvious.
