If you own an Apple device, or play a lot of Fortnite, you might have been watching the recent case between the two tech giants to see where the battle of controlling your own ecosystem would stand up legally.  Who am I kidding, no one in these demographics was truly paying attention to the legal process between Apple and Epic Games.

Short primer but Epic was trying to go around the Apple store policies on the iPhones and let people link out to their store to buy bundles.  Doesn’t sound like a big deal, except that it meant that Apple would not get their 30% cut of those transactions.  Ever wonder why Game Pass, Stadia and other services do not allow digital purchases on an Apple device.  It is exactly for that reason.

After several months of legal mumbo jumbo, witnesses and smoking gun documents, a verdict came in and it was a pretty solid win for Apple….with the exception of one item.  Apple can no longer stop apps from linking out to a website or external site that will allow someone to purchase items for said app.  People can now be linked out to Epic’s purchase site for paid transactions, skipping the Apple Store tax of 30%.

While this will be looked at as a win, I am sure this is the first stone being cast in an even longer battle.  I am sure both will want to appeal on the counts that they lost, and I bet injunctions will be handed out to keep the status quo for now.  But if things stay the way they are now, there will be a radical shift in how you can buy microtransactions for your games and apps.