Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you’ll be aware of the gaming sensation that is Fortnite. For those who are unaware, Fortnite is a cooperative shooter game where players team up to fight zombies online. To say Fortnite is popular would be an understatement.
Two weeks after the release of Fortnite Battle Royale, it had 10 million players, which grew to 125 million in less than a year. The game is nothing short of a phenomenon. Not bad considering it was only released three years ago!
Video games are big business and Fortnite is no different. For Epic Games, the company that publishes the game, it’s a huge source of income. Especially with many players making in-game purchases. Last week, Fortnite announced that they were dropping the price on one of these in-game purchases, V-Bucks, by 20%. V-Bucks are the in-game currency and you can imagine the delight when players heard the news.
However, the news wasn’t well-received by everyone. Two of the biggest companies in the world, Apple and Google, took issue with this decision. What happened next saw Fortnite troll Apple with arguably the marketing masterstroke of 2020.
Battle Royale
For players on game consoles such as the Xbox or Playstation, the changes didn’t mean much. Sure you had to change your payment to a new method called Epic direct payment, but for those users who downloaded the game via the App Store or Google Play Store, things weren’t so straightforward.
The changes made by Epic Games violated the terms and conditions of both stores. Apple and Google take a cut of in-game purchases and don’t allow a way to pay the developers directly. The changes made by Epic did exactly this. Instead of Apple or Google taking a cut, the payment went straight to them. They also passed most of the savings on to the gamer.
When it became clear that Epic wasn’t going to change their policy, Apple and Google responded by removing Fortnite from their stores. That meant it could no longer be downloaded, nor could users update the game. Unless the two companies come to an arrangement, users will not be able to download the game or use it at some point in the future following updates.
The battle is over Google, and predominantly Apple’s, stranglehold over their stores. The difference between the two stores is that Google allows third-party app stores, while Apple does not. That means that users on Android can download the game via Epic’s own store, yet those users on iOS don’t have the same option.
Epic, and many other developers, view this practice as monopolistic. They believe the tech giants are unfairly stifling competition to their detriment while big tech profits. Epic made their disgust clear by filing antitrust lawsuits against both companies.
All of this makes for a juicy corporate battle, but the real hammer blow came when Epic released a video on Fortnite, which skewered Apple and set out their case against them. It was a stroke of marketing genius.
Taking a Bite Out of Apple
Apple’s most famous marketing scheme was its 1984 ad, which portrays the company as an upstart taking on the might of computer giants such as IBM. In the ad, which takes inspiration from the dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell, people are seen watching a screen with the image of a Big Brother-like figure.
The setting is a drab one with blue and grey colours dominating the screen until a woman, presented in full colour, runs into the room. She runs towards the screen while chased by security guards and hurls her hammer at it, which shatters the screen just as Big Brother announces, “We shall prevail!” The ad concludes with a voiceover and a message which reads:
“On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”
The screen then fades out and Apple’s rainbow-coloured logo takes its place. It was a piece of marketing genius which became an iconic ad. Precisely the reason Epic decided to subvert it for their own ends.
Their ad follows the same pattern but there are a few key differences. One of the most prominent is the Big Brother figure. Gone is the old man, and in his place is a giant talking apple with sunglasses. Already the messaging of the ad is made clear, Apple is the overpowering corporation, Epic the upstart.
The ad plays out the same way as Apple’s. A character from Fortnite runs into the drab grey and blue room where people are watching the screen. She makes her way up to it and throws her hammer into the screen shattering it.
She then walks away as a message appears on the screen which reads:
“Epic Games has defied the App Store monopoly. In retaliation, Apple is blocking Fortnite from a billion devices. Join the fight to stop 2020 from becoming 1984.”
In forty seconds, Epic successfully subverted Apple’s ad, likely converted millions of gamers to their cause, and generated a lot of publicity. As far as marketing stunts go, it was a calculated masterstroke.
After releasing the video on a Thursday, it had wracked up two million views the next morning. As I sat down to write this article, five days after the video was released, it’s reached 5.3 million views. Not to mention the hashtag #FreeFortnite trending on Twitter for two days following the video’s release.
It was a gamble to subvert Apple’s ad in this way, it could have backfired on Epic, but it paid off. The genius was that Apple’s original ad presented them as the upstart taking on the might of computer giants. It portrayed them as looking out for ordinary people.
In Epic’s video, the roles are reversed. Apple is no longer the upstart but one of the biggest companies in the world. Now Epic is the upstart challenging the dominance of a company that has become too big for its boots. Most of the people playing Fortnite will not be aware of a time when Apple was not the behemoth it is today. They may never have seen Apple’s original ad.
The dispute is over money, and it should not be forgotten that Epic Games is a big company in its own right. Yet most of the gamers who enjoy Fortnite will not be bothered about this. They’ll just be annoyed they can’t download or update the game on their iOS devices.
Epic Games took one of Apple’s biggest strengths, its marketing prowess, and used it against them to devastating effect. In the inevitable battles to come between big tech, regulators, and developers, this ad could come to be seen as a watershed moment in the same way that Apple’s original ad was. Whatever happens next, Epic showed that marketing done right can have a big impact. After all, they learned from the best.
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