Epic Games fanned the embers of war recently when it took on two of the biggest players in the smartphone industry, talking of Google and Apple. The game publisher switched the system of payment on its popular game Fortnite in favour of receiving payment directly for in-app purchases. Subsequently, Fortnite was removed by both Google and Apple from the Play Store and App Store respectively.
Epic Games’ sole aim was to challenge the distribution monopolies held by both Apple and Google on Android and iOS. Of course, the dispute has headed to the law court but Apple doesn’t seem intent on waiting for a verdict. Epic Games has reportedly raised an alarm that Apple has threatened to cease support for Unreal Engine from its ecosystem unless it complies with the contentious App Store policy.
Unreal Engine is a free-to-start game engine that is popular among game publishers and is utilised by many developers around the world who deploy the engine to develop games for different platforms, amongst other uses. If Apple goes ahead and removes support for the Unreal Engine, developers would be unable to patch security flaws or fix bugs.
This could affect a wide range of games on iOS and macOS, including Microsoft’s Forza. Even games within Apple’s own Apple Arcade subscription service rely on Unreal Engine. If Apple reacts against Unreal Engine, these developers would struggle to build new iOS games or create updates. The damage would extend beyond Apple’s ecosystem, as part of Unreal Engine’s popularity comes from its support for multiple platforms, which would no longer remain as lucrative and would turn customers towards other competing solutions.
Apple has given Epic until August 28 to “cure breaches to the agreement” before it goes ahead and terminates all of Epic’s developer accounts and removes access to iOS and Mac development tools. To this end, Epic Games have filed a motion or an injunction against Apple, a move reportedly endorsed by Microsoft to endorse Epic’s motion for an injunction against Apple.
Epic Games are of the opinion that Apple’s attack has shifted from Fortnite to the company’s entire business in unrelated areas even though they are governed by separate agreements and are operated by separate legal entities.
It is left for the Court to decide the next step of action that would be taken. There are most likely several games developers wishing this goes the way of Epic. We hope this is dealt with promptly.
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