It was bound to happen. With Fortnite removed from the App Store over Epic Games’ clear defiance of Apple taking a 30 percent cut for all app revenue, eBay sellers are rushing to take advantage of the public fallout in hopes of making a quick buck.
A search for “iPhone Fortnite” on eBay brings up dozens of listings for used iPhones with Fortnite installed on them. These listings range from cracked devices with the game selling for around $100 to non-broken devices going for anywhere between $1,000 to $5,000. The most egregious listing is hoping some sucker will pony up $10,000 for an iPhone with Fortnite. Best of luck, bud!
Don’t buy them —
We highly recommend not buying any of these even if you do have the money to burn on them. Not only because these horrible people are trying to take advantage of the situation, but because despite the fact Fortnite is gone from the App Store, you can still install the game on your iPhone if you previously downloaded it.
If you previously downloaded Fortnite to your iOS device before and uninstalled it, you can go into your account settings and re-download it from iCloud. You can do this by tapping your account icon in the App Store and then going to “Purchased.” Search for Fortnite and you’ll be able to install the last available version of the app before Apple removed it.
There also is the question of security: Fortnite is tied to someone else's Apple ID. Whether that's a burner or not, why would anyone want their game connected to a stranger's account? Screw that.
Fornite will return —
This whole war against Apple (and Google) has two likely outcomes. Epic triumphs with its lawsuit and successfully paints Apple as a monopolist that stifles innovation by exerting iron-clad control over the App Store and iOS. Apple is then forced to change its rules and allow developers to charge for in-app purchases without giving it a 30 percent cut or has to allow alternative app stores. Alternatively, Apple wins and an embarrassed Epic backtracks and accepts Apple’s terms to restore Fornite to the App Store.
Either way, Epic’s call to Fortnite players to #FreeFortnite is misguided. As games pundit Jim Sterling astutely noted several days ago: players don’t care. They’re not interested in this silly corporate feud between several massive corporations. There’s no incentive to really take up digital arms.
Epic is playing hardball in an attempt to pressure Apple to change the App Store rules. But the reality is, Epic needs the iOS platform more than Apple does Fornite. Not being able to distribute Fornite to the billions of iOS users out there will hurt Epic’s bottom line — big time. It would be in both Epic and Apple's interests to come to an agreement and bring Fortnite back to the App Store for consumers. So fret not and remember that Fornite is a big business — it’ll most likely return because neither Apple nor Epic want to see that big business stop benefiting them.
