What you need to know
- New information suggests Apple and Epic wanted to offer a joint subscription service.
- The service included Fortnite Cre, Apple TV+, and Apple Music for about $20.
- It's not clear how far along with the negotiation the two companies were.
It's the legal case that keeps on giving, and the Apple versus Epic story just got weirder. New information has come to light that Apple and Fortnite developer Epic Games once had a plan to offer a service bundle.
The bundle would include Fornite Crew (formerly known as Fortnite Club) along with Apple TV+ and Apple Music. Reportedly, that service would have cost about $20 a month, which would have been roughly a $6 discount from subscribing to all the services individually.
Epic atraves de Fortnite Crew pensaba colaborador con Apple TV y Apple Music#Fortnite pic.twitter.com/uE9WL5QMYPEpic atraves de Fortnite Crew pensaba colaborador con Apple TV y Apple Music#Fortnite pic.twitter.com/uE9WL5QMYP— JeayOficial - Fortnite Leaks (@JeayOficial) May 3, 2021May 3, 2021
Not only did this bizarre discovery tell us what this supposed bundle was going to offer, but it also revealed a few details about how the two companies would share the revenue.
Apparently, if some signed up for the subscription through Apple's app, Apple was set to get $15 of the monthly fee, while Epic would take home the additional $5. On the flip side, if a user bought the subscription through Fortnite, Epic would take $12 a month and leave Apple with the remainder. There was even potential for some Apple-branded content that could have been include in Fortnite.
Of course, we know that the relationship has broken down between the two companies, and there's no indication of just how far along the negotiations were before the idea was scrapped. The inclusion of Apple TV+ could indicate that this may have been worked on as early as March 2019 when Apple TV+ was first announced, but there are no details on when this started.
