Fortnite’s video contains the tagline:“Join the fight to stop 2020 from becoming ‘1984.’"The video is, undoubtedly, a savvy marketing move, but it deliberately frames Epic Games’ fight against Apple as some kind of rebellious act, a plucky underdog facing off against a gargantuan corporation. According to Verto Analytics, 63% of all Fortnite players in the U.S. are between the ages of 18 - 24. Children don’t need to take sides in a dispute between two profit-hungry organizations. But Epic Games framing itself as some kind of freedom fighter is deeply cynical, and involving young gamers in a corporate-created culture war is incredibly manipulative. This isn’t a story of an underdog fighting against the system; Epic Games and Apple are two corporate behemoths, monolithic, almost Lovecraftian entities, squabbling over profits.

Source: Forbes August 15, 2020 19:44 UTC