Fortnite Vs. Apple: The Saga Continues

The latest development in the Epic Games and Apple battle is the termination of Epic Games developer accounts from Apple’s App Store. What does this mean for gamers and developers?

Last week, Apple officially terminated Epic Games from its App Store, including Fortnite, Battle Breakers, and Infinity Blade Stickers. With this decision, Epic Games can no longer submit any new apps or updates in the App Store. Unfortunately, gamers cannot benefit from any new updates by the Fortnite developers, which means Apple users cannot play the new Marvel-themed Season 4 launched by Fortnite. Interestingly, users who have already downloaded Fornite on their iPhone, iPad, or Mac can continue playing Fortnite. 

The clash between Apple and Epic Games began in the mid of August when Apple blocked Fortnite from its App Store after Epic Games violated the App Store guidelines to launch a direct payment option for users. Shortly after, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against Apple to end Apple’s anti-competitive practices, followed by an ultimatum from Apple to remove Epic Games’ developer accounts if it fails to comply with the App Store guidelines. This battle could turn the tables for both the companies.

While commenting on the development of events, Apple said, “We are disappointed that we have had to terminate the Epic Games account on the ‌App Store‌. We have worked with the team at Epic Games for many years on their launches and releases. The Court recommended that Epic comply with the App Store ‌ guidelines while their case moves forward, guidelines they’ve followed for the past decade until they created this situation. Epic has refused. Instead, they repeatedly submit Fortnite updates designed to violate the guidelines of the ‌App Store‌. This is not fair to all other developers on the ‌App Store‌ and is putting customers in the middle of their fight. We hope that we can work together again in the future, but unfortunately, that is not possible today.”

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In response to Apple’s statement, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, tweeted that the company didn’t violate App Store guidelines. 

Apple’s statement isn’t forthright. They chose to terminate Epic’s account; they didn’t *have* to.

Apple suggests we spammed the App Store review process. That’s not so. Epic submitted three Fortnite builds: two bug-fix updates, and the Season 4 update with this note. pic.twitter.com/VpWEERDp5LOpens a new window

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) August 28, 2020Opens a new window

Initially, Apple planned to terminate the developer accounts of Epic Games and Epic International (Unreal Engine). However, the federal district court judge signed a temporary restraining order that prevents Apple from blocking Epic’s access to Unreal Engine development tools. The restraining order will remain in effect until September 28, 2020. 

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The ruling Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said, “Thus, in focusing on the status quo, the Court observes that Epic Games strategically chose to breach its agreements with Apple which changed the status quo. No equities have been identified suggesting that the Court should impose a new status quo in favor of Epic Games. By contrast, with respect to the Unreal Engine and the developer tools, the Court finds the opposite result. In this regard, the contracts related to those applications were not breached. Apple does not persuade that it will be harmed based on any restraint on removing the developer tools. The parties’ dispute is easily cabined on the antitrust allegations with respect to the ‌App Store‌. It need not go farther. Apple has chosen to act severely, and by doing so, has impacted non-parties, and a third-party developer ecosystem. In this regard, the equities do weigh against Apple.”

The Court’s order came as a relief for various third-party app developers who use Unreal Engine for game development, digital content creation, simulation, and other real-time applications. It will be interesting to see if Fortnite makes a comeback on the App Store or bids goodbye to Apple users. The future of the case hearing will also establish more vital grounds to end anti-competitive practices and monopolization by industry heavyweights.

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