Would you let Fortnite back on the App Store?

If you closely follow Apple’s inner workings (and since you’re here, I’m guessing you do), you know Phil Schiller has always been known for his unrelenting and fierce protectiveness of Apple and the App Store.

This is why perhaps the most surprising aspect of Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’s recent scathing order to Apple in the Epic Games case was how Schiller emerged as the uncompromising good cop within the circular walls of Apple Park.

But here’s the thing: outwardly, Schiller is still Schiller.

Let’s get one thing out of the way

There is absolutely no actual information on whether the Fortnite holdup is due to Schiller. Zero. It is likely, but we don’t actually know that yet. The point I’m about to make is purely speculative.

And as for Schiller himself, I love the guy.

But.

In the past, when it came to kerfuffles with developers, we have seen how ugly things can get. Perhaps one of the most famous cases goes back to 2016, when Apple removed an app called Dash from the App Store and terminated the Developer Account associated with it.

While the developer claimed Apple had acted abruptly and unfairly, Apple claimed it had found more than 1,000 fraudulent reviews for the developer’s apps.

At one point, the developer shared audio of a phone call with an Apple representative who was trying to work out the issue with him. The audio begins:

Apple representative: Are you familiar with Phil?

Kapeli: Yeah, Phil Schiller?

Apple representative: Exactly. So basically, this is coming from Phil. And I’m working with Phil to come up with a way that we can make it right for you by reinstating your account. However, it also needs to feel fair to Apple.

That did sound fair. In the end, however, the parties never reached an agreement.

However, that call stuck. In subsequent years, as the relationship between Apple and developers grew increasingly fraught, Schiller became (perhaps unfairly, see above) the symbol of Apple’s brazenness and pettiness in its relationship with developers.

This morning, Epic claimed Apple blocked the app’s submission after days of radio silence. But if you were in Schiller’s shoes, what would you have done? Flat out reject the app? Turn the page and instruct the App Review team to just let the app go through? Instruct them to pore copiously over every. Single. Line. Of. Code (except anything IAP-related, for chrissakes) and compare it against the entirety of the App Store’s rulebook?

Ultimately, it feels inevitable that Fortnite will end up back in the App Store. But that doesn’t mean Apple won’t make the process as painful as legally possible for Epic Games.

Anyhow, what would you do? Let us know in the comments. Let’s see if 9to5Mac readers are more forgiving than John Gruber’s followers on Threads. Or Apple, for that matter.