The Big Story As the Apple and Epic Games spat enters another week, I think it’s important to level-set. The difference between a company worth a few trillion dollars and one worth a few billion, is essentially still a few trillion dollars. Epic Games might be huge and its own games store might have some top titles, but compared to Apple it might as well be someone’s Etsy storefront. Any attempts to frame this as a spat between two megacorps with equal influence is a joke. At the same time, I don’t think anyone is filling out “get well soon” cards for Epic Games. This spat is them taking an active stance, I don’t think they’re being particularly victimized, Apple is framing this as a self-inflicted wound that Epic Games is bringing on itself. I don’t think this saga will increase empathy for the Fortnite maker, but Apple definitely comes off looking like a bully. It seems increasingly likely that Apple will win this fight, I would imagine they’ll have luck in shutting down the developer accounts for the Unreal Engine and at that point it just doesn’t become worth it anymore for Epic. They’ll still get the opportunity to capitulate on in-app purchases in Fortnite while still crying monopoly. In the long run, I think they’ll get what they wanted though. By swatting down Epic, Apple’s image as a hostage-taker becomes a bit more real to the developers in their ecosystem. Thirty percent feels like an unsustainable sum, but holding onto it for dear life may cost Apple even more. Apple is teeing itself up to become the tech company with the cleanest antitrust antidote. Forcing alternative app stores onto iOS would be huge, but the fact that the Mac has already operated in this doom-free environment quells some of Apple’s broader statements around how dangerous this would be for consumer protections. See Apple’s legal response filed yesterday here. | 
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