GAME OF ‘OWNS’
$4K-plus for old Fortnite iPhones
Apple’s ban of “Fortnite” from its App Store has led opportunistic iPhone sellers to try to make a quick buck.
Listings of iPhones loaded with the wildly popular battle-royale game have flooded eBay this week. A search for the term “Fortnite iPhone” brought up more than 675 results at the auction site, many of them asking thousands of dollars for years-old iPhones.
One listing for a used iPhone 8 Plus sold Thursday morning for $3,250, plus $3.90 shipping. Another, which sold on Monday four days after Apple announced its ban, went to the highest bidder for $4,750.
The listings for the used phones are usually accompanied by screenshots showing that the previous owner has downloaded the massive multiplayer game. Business Insider first reported the phenomenon.
“LAST CHANCE TO PLAY FORTNITE ON AN IPHONE!” one listing reads. “GUARANTEE THAT PHONE IS IN PERFECT CONDITION AND FORTNITE IS WORKING AND PLAYABLE.”
“Fortnite” last week was kicked off the App Store — the only source to download apps onto the iPhone or iPad — after developer Epic Games rolled out a new payment system allowing it to circumvent the 30 percent cut that Apple takes from all in-app transactions.
Epic subsequently sued Apple as well as Google — which also kicked it off of its app store for the same reason — accusing the tech giants of monopolistic practices and arguing they should lower fees charged to app developers relying on their marketplaces.
The game-developer this week asked for a restraining order to keep Apple from terminating its developer accounts and cutting it off from its development tools.
Apple, for its part, has argued that Epic’s problem is entirely of its own creation.
“The problem Epic has created for itself is one that can easily be remedied if they submit an update of their app that reverts it to comply with the guidelines they agreed to and which apply to all developers,” Apple said in a statement. “We won’t make an exception for Epic because we don’t think it’s right to put their business interests ahead of the guidelines that protect our customers.”