It is approaching a year since Epic Games, the maker of the hugely popular Fortnite and Unreal Engine, openly declared war on Apple due to payment issues.

The "App Store" monopoly, as Epic put it, was declared the reason for the fight, as the company introduced direct in-app payments in Fortnite to circumvent purchase via Apple systems.

The "Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite" ad published by Epic made the headlines. In the ad, Apple was portrayed as "pure evil" as it made a clear reference to the iPhone maker’s famous "1984" commercial, which aired in January 1984 in the United States.

In the ad, Apple targeted computer giant IBM, or the "Big Blue," saying the company envisioned a future reminiscent of George Orwell’s dystopian classic "1984." Epic was hitting the Cupertino-based iPhone maker with its own weapon.

Apart from the fact that it was in clear violation of App Store rules, it was an attempt by Epic to be portrayed as a hero, as one of Fortnite's characters was seen breaking a TV with a hammer, with the "Evil Apple" character vanishing from the screen afterward. Epic tried to draw a line between legality and morality by reminding everyone that slavery was once legal and freeing slaves was illegal, just as hiding Jews from the Nazis was a crime but reporting them was legal and encouraged. Epic blasted what it called Apple's "totalitarian" approach to running its app ecosystem.

Epic’s attempt was a highly successful public relations stunt. In the short period before Apple banned Fortnite and gamers could actually shop through Epic Games' own payment system, they were paying $2 less, $7.99 instead of $9.99. Epic was basically telling its customers, "Look, if Apple wasn't in the way, you'd be paying much less." But Apple’s exorbitant cuts from publishers’ revenues have always drawn ire. Some 30% of all revenue goes to the California giant, which has been a tremendous contribution to its near-permanent growth in the last 10 years.

Many proposals have been made to solve the matter with some saying that Apple should be allowed only 10% and others allowing 15%. Despite the changing percentages, there's a consensus: 30% is not fair. Should Apple continue its harsh stance regarding the cut, many publishers, especially small and up-and-coming ones, are bound to have a breakdown one way or another. It has also been branded greedy, considering the revenues of the global app topped $50 billion in just the first half of 2020.

As the pie is so big, Epic wants more slices. That’s why this fight began anyway. Even though millions of mobile players using iPhones and iPads were deprived of a battle royale on the cross-platform shooter, the fight revealed a lot that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Behind-the-scenes galore

Since the trial kicked off recently in California's Oakland, the companies’ legal war has intensified.

In the lawsuit, Epic is alleging that Apple has "abused" the power it holds over the software developers who want to reach its 1 billion iPhone users, as the Cupertino-based giant is charging commissions of up to 30% on in-app purchases and conducting App Store reviews that Epic claims "hold back companies Apple views as competitors."

The trial represents a standoff between the two tech giants, shedding light on many never-before-known facts.