Todd Haselton, CNBC:

Apple on Tuesday shot back in its legal battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games, filing a response and counterclaims alleging that the gaming company breached its contract with Apple and seeking an unspecified amount in damages.

Apple:

″Epic’s lawsuit is nothing more than a basic disagreement over money,” Apple said in a filing with the District Court for the Northern District of California. “Although Epic portrays itself as a modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality it is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App Store.”

A gigantic conflict, with shots fired. Stepping outside the conflict itself, I do think a point being lost here is the value of apps to the App Store itself.

The App Store provides a marketplace, reasonably secure, with lots of infrastructure, including sophisticated payment mechanisms and the ability to reach a massive audience. Flawed, perhaps, but there’s no denying the App Store gives an indie app developer a way to reach a worldwide audience without reinventing the wheel.

But this is not a one way street. The apps in the App Store add huge value to Apple’s ecosystem. As a whole, the apps help sell Apple devices, all while feeding Apple’s services revenue.

To me, the real villain here is the shareholder requirement for a publicly traded company to grow or die. If Apple did not have that wolf at the door, they might be able to find more balance in their relationship with developers.