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What costs a billion dollars, takes five years to build, and irritates the world's richest tech company? Tim Sweeney's gamble just changed how you'll buy everything on your iPhone—and the real price he paid goes far beyond money.
Good Morning from San Francisco, OpenAI just pulled a dramatic U-turn. The AI powerhouse scrapped its plan to hand control
What costs a billion dollars, takes five years to build, and irritates the world's richest tech company? Tim Sweeney's gamble just changed how you'll buy everything on your iPhone—and the real price he paid goes far beyond money.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney just bought himself a $1 billion headache. And he couldn't be happier about it.
In a revealing interview with Peter Kafka of Businessinsider, Sweeney disclosed the staggering cost of his five-year crusade against Apple's App Store monopoly. The price tag? Over $100 million in legal fees alone, plus an estimated billion dollars in lost revenue. For perspective, that's enough money to develop Fortnite ten times over.
But Sweeney sees this as more than just business. He views it as a fight for "digital freedom" – though his definition of freedom involves letting people buy virtual dance moves without Apple taking a 30% cut.
The battle began in 2020 when Epic deliberately violated Apple's App Store rules, leading to Fortnite's banishment from iPhones worldwide. Sweeney didn't just lose access to Apple's platform; he lost access to an entire generation of potential players who primarily game on mobile devices.
"Metcalfe's Law is a real factor here," Sweeney explains, referring to the network effect that makes games more valuable when friends can play together. By cutting off iOS access, Apple didn't just block individual players – they disrupted entire social networks of potential Fortnite enthusiasts.
Last week's court ruling may change everything. The verdict forces Apple to let developers inform users about alternative payment methods outside the App Store. It's a technical detail that could reshape the mobile gaming landscape.
For Epic, this victory means Fortnite's imminent return to iOS. Sweeney's company has already established a new developer account through its Swedish subsidiary, neatly sidestepping past conflicts. "I would be very surprised if Apple decided to brave the geopolitical storm of blocking a major app from iOS," Sweeney notes, with what sounds like a mix of confidence and subtle warning.
The Epic CEO frames this as a moral crusade, hearkening back to his early programming days on the Apple II. "You turn the computer on, you get a BASIC programming prompt. Anybody can write code, anybody can save it to a floppy disk, you can share it with a friend, you can sell it," he reminisces. Though one might question whether selling virtual currency through an iPhone app quite matches the romantic freedom of 1980s home computing.
Surprisingly, Epic's investors largely supported this costly crusade. All except one, who Sweeney says "exited Epic right quick." The others stayed, betting on Epic's broader vision of building the metaverse and transforming Fortnite from a game into an ecosystem serving billions of players.
For Sweeney, this fight represents a crucial battle for the future of digital commerce. "If Apple controls the spigot, the revenue spigot at the top of the funnel, they will use that control to extract all of the profit that will ever be made from this space," he argues. It's a compelling point, even if that "spigot" primarily controls the flow of virtual dance moves and colorful character skins.
The Epic CEO now splits his time between coding and legal battles, viewing both as essential parts of modern game development. "What good is coding if you don't have the right to release your product?" he asks. "You have to mix the love of the art together with your defense of your right to engage in the art."
Apple plans to appeal the ruling, but developers aren't waiting. Spotify has already implemented alternative payment options, and Fortnite plans to follow suit this week. The mobile gaming gold rush is about to begin – this time with 30% more gold to go around.
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