Fortnite vs. Apple: Fortnite players react to lawsuit, App Store removal

After a wild day of unexpected updates, discounted V-Bucks, app store removals, parody video shorts, and legal action, the dust has settled — and Fortnite remains missing from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

While takes are still flying in now, and aren’t likely to stop, since the game appears to be gone for the foreseeable future, we took a look back at some of the community and pro reactions that were happening in real time.

Before the ban

The first community reactions came shortly after the patch on Thursday morning, as fans were already trying to predict what the consequences of Epic’s new discount would be. While there were a few posters that had a good idea, one Reddit user really hit the nail on the head, correctly guessing that Epic intended to take on Apple.

The app store bans

By the time the game was actually removed from the App Store — something most people were anticipating from the beginning — it seemed that many players jumped on board for the memes. When it was delisted from the Play Store a few hours later, even fewer people were surprised.

The in-game short

The No. 1 response to the in-game video “Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite” appeared to be players either wondering what it was based on, or players — completely unprompted — explaining that it was based on an Apple Super Bowl commercial from 1984.

On the other hand, more than a few players were just hyped for a fight:

Other Redditors were ... more creative with their response:

Pro players and content creators

While some Fortnite pros are supporting Epic, others aren’t thrilled with the disruption for mobile players. One poster on the Fortnite Competitive subreddit summed it up by saying, “Feel like people are missing the point when an entire device can’t be used to play the game when season 4 launches.”

Meanwhile, other pro players are frustrated that Epic opted to use a promotional hashtag for its own legal purposes, but often doesn’t respond to community hashtags about the game, such as #removethemech from several seasons ago.

Perma-banned former pro FaZe Jarvis took to Twitter for a little trolling:

Other Epic allies

One proponent of Epic’s actions wasn’t exactly a fan at all: It was Spotify. The streaming music giant released a statement in support of Epic taking on Apple:

Apple’s policy of taking 30% of in-app purchases affects Spotify as well, which is why Spotify makes users sign up outside of the iOS app; the same is true of Netflix. Spotify accused Apple of anti-competitive practices in the EU just last year, and Epic publicly supported the company when the European Commission launched an investigation earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Tinder parent company Match Group has voiced its support of Epic as well. While these are the two largest companies to get behind Epic’s drastic action for now, it’s possible that more could join in the future.