Fortnite Releases Parody Of Iconic 1984 Apple Ad

Only hours after being banned from the App Store, Fortnite released a parody of the iconic 1984 ad from Apple: Welcome to Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite.

Apple and Fortnite are probably gearing up to a long legal battle after Apple unilaterally kicked out Fornite from its App Store. But what really triggered my interest was not the why this started, but the how.

Apple removed Fornite from its App Store because Epic games added a new payment option in its game, other than the existing Apple payment system. This move allowing users to conduct in-game purchases without Apple could potentially cost billions to Apple who takes a 30% cut on all in-app purchases. Apple was not acting alone though. Google also removed Fornite from its Google Play store for the same reason.

But it is Apple who is now the target of Epic Games. Just hours after Fortnite was banned from the Apple Store, the company released a parody of Apple’s iconic 1984 ad.

1984 was a big deal for Apple. The ad, inspired by the universe of George Orwell, was announcing a new world where people would no longer rely on the old guard that IBM and Microsoft represented. Here is the original ad:

In a very clever PR stunt, Epic Games produced the perfect parody of the ad to denounce the politic and monopoly of Apple and its App Store. Dubbed “Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite” the video features characters from the games in what could become the ad that started the demise of the App Store as we know it.