David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH)

But we had to build some bullshit.

dummy account such that the app did something when you downloaded it.

That was a rule that Phil Schiller seemingly made up on the fly when pressed for the fifth time by the media about why we couldn't be in the app store when a million other companion apps could.

But we just happened to be able to create so much pain and noise for Apple that it was easier for them to just let us be than to keep on fighting.

I think it is incredible, and the entire developer ecosystem, not just on iOS, but on Android as well, owe Epic, Tim Sweeney, and Mark Raine an enormous debt of gratitude for taking on the only battle that has ever inflicted a serious wound on Apple in this entire sordid campaign of monopoly enforcement, and that is Epic's fight versus them.

Tim recently revealed that it has cost well over $100 million in legal fees to carry on this battle against Apple.

We, for a hot moment, considered suing Apple when they were threatening to kick us out.

We shopped the case around with a few law firms, and perhaps, of course, they would tell us, you have a good case.

I mean, they're trying to sell a product here.

But they would also tell us it's going to cost a minimum of $10 million, and it's going to take...

Five to seven years through all the appeals.

Now, we now learned the actual price tag was 10 times higher, right?

Epic spent over $100 million.

It would have destroyed us to take on Apple in the legal realm.

Only a company like Epic could do it.

And only a company run by founders like Tim, like Mark, could do it.

risk the business in the way that they did, the audacity they had to provoke the fight in the first place, which I thought was just incredible, and to stick with it for the long term.

No board would have signed off on this lawsuit to a professional CEO.

No freaking way.

So the fact that they've been able to beat Apple in also the most hilarious way possible, I think it's just incredible.