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Things are moving fast in the Epic Games battle against Apple. After Fortnite was taken from the App Store for breaking Apple’s rules – sneaking into a direct payment method to bypass the in-app purchase system – Epic almost immediately filed a lawsuit against Apple. Now the game developer says Apple is terminating their account.
Epic shared the update on Twitter today, calling the deletion of his account “retaliation” for taking legal action against Apple. The developer says Apple plans to terminate all of its accounts and cut it off from iOS and Mac developer tools on August 28.
Epic has asked the Northern District Court of California where it filed its lawsuit last week to prevent Apple from terminating its developer account in a new case. But considering how Apple has expressed its willingness to work with Epic Games to grab Fortnite from the App Store, and then Epic has responded with a lawsuit and a calculated protest, that might not be very likely with Apple. having the highest legal basis here.
Here is the opening of Epic’s latest deposit after learning that Apple was about to terminate its account:
A little over two weeks ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook was questioned during a hearing before Congress whether Apple had “ever retaliated against or disadvantaged a developer who made public his frustrations with the App Store ”. Mr Cook said: “We do not retaliate or intimidate people. It is strongly against our corporate culture. This is precisely what Apple did. When Epic gave users of its Fortnite app the choice of how they wanted to shop, Apple hit back by removing Fortnite from its App Store. Then, when Epic sued Apple for breaking its monopoly on app stores and in-app payments, Apple fired back with ferocity. He told Epic that by August 28, Apple will cut Epic’s access to all developer tools needed to create software for Apple’s platforms, including Unreal Engine Epic offerings at third-party developers, which Apple has never claimed to violate any Apple policy. Not content with removing Fortnite from the App Store, Apple is attacking all of Epic’s activity in unrelated areas.
Epic says that beyond harming “millions of innocent consumers around the world” who play Fortnite and its other games, Apple is terminating its developer account as a threat to its Unreal engine.
Additionally, Apple’s retaliation poses an existential threat to Epic’s Unreal Engine. Operating system vendors like Apple regularly make certain software and development tools available to software developers, free of charge or for a nominal fee, to enable the development of software that will run on the operating system. Apple intends to deny Epic access to this widely available material. Without this access, Epic cannot develop future versions of Unreal Engine for use on iOS or macOS.
Context
When Apple removed Fortnite from direct payment last week, an official statement from the company ended with, “We will do everything possible to work with Epic to resolve these violations so that they can fire Fortnite back to the App Store. “
Soon after, Epic released this protest video based on Apple’s famous 1984 ad, criticizing Apple for running an “App Store monopoly” and “blocking Fortnite from a billion devices.” And just over an hour after Fortnite was pulled from the App Store, Epic Games took legal action.
Epic is not seeking monetary compensation from this Court for the injuries it suffered. Epic is also not seeking favorable treatment for itself, a single company. Instead, Epic is seeking an injunction to allow fair competition in these two key markets that directly affect hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of thousands, if not more, of third-party app developers.
In one 9to5Mac poll, 51% of readers agreed with Apple pulling Fortnite. Another 35% agreed with Apple, but felt there should be changes to the App Store rules. Only 13% felt that Apple should not have removed the app.
As the battle between the two takes another big step forward, what do you think? Does it make sense for Apple to terminate Epic’s developer account? Or do you feel like retaliation? Share your opinion in the comments below!
My colleague Ben Lovejoy has reviewed four possible outcomes that we could see in the trial. Even though today’s news marks a big step from Apple, it could be some time before we see a decision in the case, unless Epic chooses to back down.
True or False, Epic Games has received a lot of credit for its meticulously planned approach to this battle, such as with fine details like Tim Cook’s glasses appearing on the “bad Apple boss” in his protest video.
While Apple is giving notice to terminate Epic’s accounts might seem a bit odd, it could give the company to reconsider the lawsuit and may also have a hidden subtext based on the August 14 date the application has been removed.
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