Over on the wonderful social media platform known as Twitter, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeny revealed that Apple has rejected their request to add Fortnite back on to the App Store. Specifically, Apple has refused the request to reinstate Epic's developer account that was terminated back in August 2020 right as the legal fight was heating up.
Sweeney shared a letter that was sent to him by Apple. This letter rejects Epic's request for being reinstated. It also says that Apple won't even consider requests to be reinstated "until the district court's judgment becomes final and non-appealable." This, according to Sweeney, could be as long as five years.
Sorry if I don't exactly feel any sympathy for Tim Sweeney or Epic here. This entire situation is of their own doing. They intentionally tried to circumvent Apple's payment system, which was an intentional move that they knew broke their contract with Apple. Apple did the appropriate thing and removed Fortnite from their store, which is what Epic expected to happen. It was at that point that Epic sued Apple. They then tried to weaponize their young and impressionable gaming audience with a 1984-inspired propaganda campaign that they just happened to have all ready to go. Even with that, they still got quite destroyed in their court case. Epic does plan on appealing the ruling, of course.
This is almost the very definition of "fuck around and find out."
