Fortnite: Save the World For Mac Is Shutting Down Because of Epic's Battle With Apple (theverge.com) 78
Epic Games says Fortnite: Save the World will no longer be playable on macOS beginning on September 23rd because Apple is preventing the game from receiving new updates. The Verge reports: The co-op action shooter was initially released as a paid early access title in 2017. Epic's far more popular free-to-play battle royale will still be playable on Mac, the company says. Epic says Apple is blocking new updates and patches for the macOS version of Save the World, and an upcoming update going out to other platforms will cause bugs and "a very poor experience" for players stuck on the current version.
In late August, Apple terminated Epic's developer account, meaning users cannot download or reinstall games developed by Epic, including Fortnite, and Epic can no longer validate updates for distribution. The studio said that it will issue refunds to "all players who purchased any Save the World Founder's or Starter Packs (including Upgrades) and played Save the World on macOS between September 17, 2019, and September 17, 2020." Epic Games says it may take until October 2nd for players to receive refunds.
In late August, Apple terminated Epic's developer account, meaning users cannot download or reinstall games developed by Epic, including Fortnite, and Epic can no longer validate updates for distribution. The studio said that it will issue refunds to "all players who purchased any Save the World Founder's or Starter Packs (including Upgrades) and played Save the World on macOS between September 17, 2019, and September 17, 2020." Epic Games says it may take until October 2nd for players to receive refunds.
Unless Epic published it in the Mac App Store... (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no way in hell apple cold stop Epic from publishing updates on their website.
Granted, the update will not be notarized, and MacOS would throw a warning and refuse to run the binaries. But cancelling the warning and being able to run the update is actually easier than sideloading an android app downloaded from a Website. You know, like Epic did a while ago with Fortnite itself...
Good grief, just do the update, publish them and let the chips land were they will.
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If the app is sandboxed, it's actually quite a lot worse than the machine refusing to run the binaries because of lack of notarization. The app wouldn't be able to access its sandbox container at all, so even if you dismissed the warning, you still won't be able to usefully run the app.
They could, of course, have you re-download with sandboxing disabled, and then the app could manually migrate the sandboxed preferences and similar back into the main Library directory, but it would require some coding effo
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I did not understand a single word.
I download and install "applications" on my Mac quite often ... what "sandbox" are you talking about?
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App sandboxing [apple.com]. Required for any app distributed in the Mac App Store.
Re:Unless Epic published it in the Mac App Store.. (Score:4, Informative)
It's a computer. They are free to distribute the app via their own website. Users can download it and install it. No Mac App Store required.
The only plausible argument is that users will have to delete the version they have downloaded from the app store and do a brand new "full install" of the game from outside of the app store...but there is absolutely nothing preventing Epic from doing so.
OSX/MacOS direct is perfectly fine. (Score:2)
Yep. I distribute my OSX/MacOS (and Windows, for that matter) apps directly, never having been enthused by Apple's approach to an app store and the associated app store and developer fees and percentages. No problems whatsoever. If you're looking for what I have to offer, my stuff is very easy to find. As for Epic... lol, also not a problem to find.
Epic, having let Apple get their claws into them, may have to start over with their users unless they have stats on each user (which, given how people approach g
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It's a computer. They are free to distribute the app via their own website. Users can download it and install it. No Mac App Store required.
The only plausible argument is that users will have to delete the version they have downloaded from the app store and do a brand new "full install" of the game from outside of the app store...but there is absolutely nothing preventing Epic from doing so.
That's actually exactly what I said, except that I provided a lot more detail about what other work they would need to do if they want to migrate things like app preferences from the MAS version to a non-MAS version (which presumably they would want to do). The keychain issue could be a headache, though.
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Actually, I was posting under the assumption that the app was previously available via the MAS. If they never did, then the only headache will be the lack of Apple's magic stamp and the resulting warning, plus the fact that it will have to be an unsigned version of a previously signed app, which will cause a lot of other problems unless they change the bundle identifier, which I guess they probably would have to do anyway.
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what "sandbox" are you talking about?
Damn, dude, don't they have playgrounds where you're from?
Google the nearest one, drive over to it, find the sandbox, kick the down the sand castle of the little wiener kid who made it, and as the kid is crying while the mother is berating you for destroying her little messiah's masterpiece, sit down and download the application of your choice.
Once it's installed, you're good to go. It'll stay installed so long as you don't delete it.
Come on, people, what's so hard abou
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"Once it's installed, you're good to go. It'll stay installed so long as you don't delete it and as long as you stay in the sandbox."
FTFY
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I was just trying to expand the joke made by CoolDiscoRex by adding another absurd requirement into the list and you destroyed it by adding facts from the real world. Nice going, buddy.
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So package it in a DMG or PKG and have them log into epic account again and re-sync all their content?
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Pretty much, yeah. Like I said, not impossible, just annoying.
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Personally, I think this is awesome. I want my computer manufacturer to determine what software is acceptable for me to run, and I feel like we’re finally getting closer to that awesome reality. The walled garden that is iOS has, at least to varying degrees, found it’s way to the Mac. I guess all us frogs saw it coming when Apple began slowly turning up the heat. They didn’t turn it up fast enough for us to leap out, though.
It’s a matter of time before it will be impossible to di
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And not worth the development effort, thus they are shutting it down.
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Then you've never written a Mac app. It's optional unless you distribute your app through the Mac App Store, but it's there. And it sucks. I made the mistake of installing the MAS version of a video editing app, and the process for importing media involves having to manually go back in a standard "open file" dialog to select the folder containing the file in question so that it can get sandbox access rights for that folder. For every single file you want to import from a new location. And if you try t
Re: Unless Epic published it in the Mac App Store. (Score:1)
Re: Unless Epic published it in the Mac App Store. (Score:4, Informative)
They didn't lose "Access to the SDKs". I don't have an active developer account, but I have access to all the SDKs. Go to the app store on a Mac, download Xcode, and there you have access to every SDK that Apple has.
This is purely about signing the app and putting it in the app store. The SDK access thing is fear mongering by Epic to try to justify to the court why they shot themselves in the face.
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Re: Unless Epic published it in the Mac App Store (Score:2)
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I hear 2021 will be the year of Linux on the desktop.
As soon as the apply that kernel patch.
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Perhaps, but this isn't about that. Epic is trying to win users over to their side. I predict this will turn out to be a major backfire. They'll be cutting off paying customers, and those customers can't blame anyone but Epic.
Apple has nothing to do with this (Score:4, Insightful)
Fortnite is instilled on the Mac through Epic's own store, which you install outside the App Store.
Apple has absolutely nothing to do with Fortnite being disabled on the Mac, it's 100% on Epic.
This is where class action suites from users should start up...
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Is 'Save the World' mode playable from the Fortnite Mac binaries that you can download for free from Epic? I only have 'Save the World' on my Windows system that I paid for directly from Epic and I never play the free version of Fortnite. Possibly did Epic utilize a 'paywall' on STW for the Mac by selling it on the App store?
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Is 'Save the World' mode playable from the Fortnite Mac binaries that you can download for free from Epic?
It used to be. There was no difference running the Mac Fortnite from the PS4 Fortnite.
Possibly did Epic utilize a 'paywall' on STW for the Mac by selling it on the App store?
Fortnite was never on the App Store as far as I know, certainly not for the last year or two when I've had it installed.
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Epic provided support for years, then pulled sudde (Score:1)
Class action lawsuits for not providing support for a minority platform? Can Amiga users get in on that too?
No - for providing support for years, then suddenly dropping the platform without any kind of advanced notice.
If you were a Mac user who bought a lot of VBucks, wouldn't you feel pretty angry? When Apple is not blocking Epic, but Epic choses to shut down access without warning?
It's totally different than the case of Epic not already providing support for a platform, where you have no grounds for dama
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They've given advanced notice. That's what this entire story is about.
Come on, advanced notice on games dropping support for customers is measured in MONTHS, not weeks.
Not to mention that Epic obviously planned this whole action a year or more in advanced, never telling customers blissfully buying V-Bucks they can never use now.
I didn't even read the rest of your response, as I don't waste time on people are are inherently assholes or at least lack any sense of common decency.
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"Sideloading" an Android app is as simple as tapping the apk and enabling unknown sources when prompted. It's not even "sideloading" since Android is designed to be open and allow users to control it, unlike anything from Crapple.
LOL! (Score:1)
First streaming boxes now this (Score:2)
Seems like we are entering an era of "the new bad old days" where computing is heavily balkanized and one service/game won't run on certain boxes when there is no technical reason for it to be the case. Just because of some 'dispute'.
Do I miss the shitfest that was home computing/gaming in the early 1980s? Nope.
Do I want a return to those days? Nope.
Re: First streaming boxes now this (Score:2)
" "gamers" who are more than happy to pay ever-hiked prices for buggy content that requires multitudes of DLC and microtransactions, as well as forcing new console purchases every few years.
I have been hoping for another 1983 for the game industry, and a return to the PC, "
I'm hoping that all of the bullshit crashes soon and there will be a return to sanity. Really, I do.
However the culture of 1983 is far different than what goes on now. I was around back then playing video games, but I often forget just ho
Re: The Internet has died. (Score:1)
Wow you have the exact same visa card year s later? How do you get a card that doesn't expire?
Epic is losing this one (Score:3)
They're losing a ton of money. By the time the case gets to court everyone would have forgotten Fortnite and will have moved on to other games.
This could be a case study on how do kill the golden goose.
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They're making most of their money from their games on gaming consoles (like ~90%, IIRC). If they lose, they've lost at most 10% of their sales.
If they win, on the other hand, they'll either be able to reduce their prices by ~27% across all closed platforms (because this will be a pretty strong precedent that such behavior wouldn't be allowed on gaming consoles, either) or, at their option, increase their profit margin on those platforms by 39%. Even if they never get back a single one of those lost iOS
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They're making most of their money from their games on gaming consoles
Err. are they? Epic reported $4.2bn in net revenue in 2019, and $1.8bn of that apparently was from Fortnite. I'm not sure about you, but running a bunch of servers and spitting out colourful skins doesn't consumes a lot of money. I highly suspect Epic may have made a loss last year if it weren't for Fortnite considering their EBITDA was only $730million.
As for what's happening now? In April Fortnite recorded record high concurrent players at 12 million. That number is now approximately half. Now sure some o
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They're making most of their money from their games on gaming consoles
Err. are they? Epic reported $4.2bn in net revenue in 2019, and $1.8bn of that apparently was from Fortnite.
Fortnite is available on more than just iOS. I was specifically talking about the breakdown of Fortnite's revenue across platforms. I have no idea about their other games.
Re: Epic is losing this one (Score:2)
I doubt they're losing all that much. All of nobody is a serious gamer on a mac owing to the crappy GPU selection, so even if we assume a lot of players use Macs, it's unlikely they're big freemium spenders, which is what fortnight depends on. I can almost guarantee you that this skews heavily towards PC and console users.
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They're losing a ton of money. By the time the case gets to court...
... the damages that Epic Games can claim through lost revenue will be absolutely enormous.
Who cares? (Score:2)
Seriously though.... who buys an iphone to play 3d shooters?..... or a phone in general?
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So I see you giving your opinion on the matter of macOS and Apples desktops... by only referencing their phones.
Good (Score:2, Insightful)
The game sucked anyway.
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Well, stop looking at yourself in a mirror, then.
Re: Did Epic break Apple Developer Licence? (Score:3)
But then again it is a crazy world, and all Epic's lawyer must have a game plan.
Sure they do. It can be summed up in two words:
Billable Hours.
Epic battles are profitable (Score:2)
Epic is probably getting more users simply out of curiosity from people hearing in the news about the game and its role in legal fights with Apple and Google.
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Single vendor app store monopolies need to die.
The fix is simple (Score:1, Troll)
Adhere to the rules you agreed to when you launched your game on Apples platform.
You don't get to grow your userbase to level X, then change the rules so you can cut out the very people who made your platform possible.
If you don't like those rules, make your own phones, write your own platform and do what you will.
Additionally, in the unlikely event Epic comes out on top of this, do you think they will allow 3rd parties to sell V-Bucks ( or whatever the currency is ) inside of Fortnite without paying Epic i
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The rules that Epic violated have always been in the list. And they're not just little fine print buried near the bottom, these are huuuge bullet points that very clearly warn you that you will get the boot if you violate them.
And yes, Apple does update their terms somewhat often. And just like any wall of fine print you see when you install a game update, you scroll through the mindless fine print, check the box that says "I agree", and life goes on. Rarely is there anything in there that will affect yo
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Good to know.
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Re: The fix is simple (Score:2)
"The app store rules keep changing, so they are not the same rules they agreed to at launch. They changed this week"
Yes, the old constant movement of tbe goal posts. And this is far from being just an Apple problem or even the computer industry as it infects all kinds of orgs in 'real life'.
And then the masters want to act shocked and vengeful when people don't respect the rules.
Of course I've seen plenty of favoritism and selective enforcement both in and outside of the industry.
who the hell (Score:1)
Really? (Score:2, Troll)
Why would anyone play games on a Mac? What's next; games on a mobile?!
Fortnite reaping what they sowed (Score:1)
Consoles (and meh) . . . (Score:2)
I'm wondering how much of this is really about Apple and how much is about consoles. My last console was an original Xbox that was a gift, so I am not up on the current crop of games on the Xbox and PS ecosystems. With that said, aren't consoles walled gardens, and if they are, couldn't an adverse ruling about iOS ultimately lead to some legal precedent that is applicable to consoles? While I'm an Android user, I'm sure that almost all of the people I know who use iPhones don't care about this dispute at al
"Save the World For Mac"? (Score:2)
Shouldn't that be "Save the World From Mac"?
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