According to a recent deposition made public in the Epic Games vs Apple lawsuit, Epic is preventing Fortnite from being made available on Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) service.
When asked why Fortnite isn’t available on xCloud, Joe Kreiner, Epic’s vice president of business development, said in the deposition that it was a deliberate decision. Since Fortnite developers see Microsoft’s xCloud service as a direct competitor to its PC offerings, the title, along with all other games owned by Epic, will not be available on xCloud.
Last year, Epic Games collaborated with Nvidia to launch Fortnite on GeForce Now and offer a range of other games from its PC game store on the Nvidia cloud gaming service, with all sales from the original game purchase and any in-app payments going to Epic rather than Nvidia.
The main distinction between Nvidia and xCloud’s offering is that with Nvidia, you play games that you purchased directly from Steam, Epic Games Store, and other online stores. In contrast, with Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft processes all purchases, and rival storefronts are not permitted.
In the end, those two issues are at the forefront of Epic’s legal battle with Apple. According to Epic, Apple should allow companies to operate competing storefronts on iOS, with the option to use their own payment systems.
Source: The Verge
