Earlier this week, a federal judge blocked Apple from shutting down Epic Games‘ Unreal Engine, which is a tool relied on hundreds of other app makers and game developers, according to a Gadgets360 report.

The move from Apple arrives after Epic Games sued the Cupertino based giant of anti competitive practices on its App Store. The ruling from the judge safeguards the computer graphics software/game engine which it offers through an affiliate business. Unreal Engine is used to power hundreds of games and other applications that can be found in applications used in the iPhone. Additionally, we had previously reported on Apple planning on revoking Unreal Engine support on iOS, so it seems that this move has failed.

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According to Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, “Epic Games and Apple are at liberty to litigate against each other, but their dispute should not create havoc to bystanders.” In other words, the dispute between both companies should not bring unrelated parties into the crossfire. The legal battle between Apple and Epic Games started after the latter sued both the former and the Google for anti competitive practices on their respective platforms, from which Fortnite was removed.

For those unaware, both Google and Apple take a cut out of any microtransaction and purchase made through games on their app stores. A recent Fornite update bypassed this system, which violated the terms of service on both platforms. The judge also stated that “the current predicament (with Fortnite) appears of its own making” and has refused to force a reinstatement at the moment. Although, Rogers has allowed Unreal Engine to continue powering iPhone apps.

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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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