Today marks the beginning of the three-week Apple vs. Epic trial over the App Store. The trial, however, began in chaos as the call-in line was flooded with Fortnite and Apple fans alike after the court failed to mute the participants.
There is no live video stream of the Epic vs. Apple trial, but there is an audio call-in number listed on the United States District Court website. Ahead of the trial beginning this morning, the call-in phone line was flooded by Apple and Fortnite fans arguing over the case’s outcome.
One of the most prominent chants during the call was loyal Fortnite fans screaming “free Fortnite.” VentureBeat has a good recap of some of the other best moments of the call:
Ultimately, the court finally figured out how the phone system works, and everyone was muted. “I think we’ve got the phone lines under control. It will not be a problem in the future,” federal judge Yvette Gonzalez Rogers said.
“I’m going to tell my mom just don’t pick up the line,” said one audience member.
Another said, “Tim Sweeney better know what he’s doing. If he messes up once, we won’t have iOS back. This call is live, by the way.”
Then someone said, “They screwed up and lost their app on iOS.”
One person chanted, “Epic Games! Epic Games!”
One listener became a commentator, saying the trial is expected to last three weeks. Another started playing Travis Scott, who held a concert in Fortnite that was attended by tens of millions of people.
“We just want mobile back,” said another. “I’m so poor I can’t afford mobile.”
There was a lot of cursing.
At one point, there were dozens of people trying to talk at once. One person promoted his YouTube channel. Another sang the praises of auto-aiming on mobile.
The Epic v Apple trial begins with the best part of a trial: Figuring out how to get the technology working.
— Ian Sherr (@iansherr) May 3, 2021
The Apple VS Epic court trial has started.. and some Fortnite players have found a way to use their microphones in the audio conference and have used it to play Travis Scott music and other stuff.
Oh boy… this is gonna be interesting.
— ShiinaBR – Fortnite Leaks (@ShiinaBR) May 3, 2021
Start of the Epic v Apple trial appears to be delayed bc no one can figure out how to mute the hundreds of people asking the judge to bring back Fortnite Mobile on the public teleconference line pic.twitter.com/0Rj4Qu5ivH
— Nicolás Rivero (@NicolasFuRivero) May 3, 2021