The long-running feud between Apple and Fortnite developer Epic Games has reached a new chapter after Apple terminated Epic’s developer account.
In January, Apple outlined plans to allow third parties to create its own app stores for European iPhone and iPad users following the EU ruling. However, this latest move prevents Epic Games from doing just that.
Apple claims that Epic Games is “verifiably unreliable,” citing the company’s past behavior and statements from its CEO, Tim Sweeney.
The cancellation of the publisher’s account was announced on the Epic Games blog.
“We recently announced that Apple has approved our Epic Games Sweden AB developer account. We intended to use that account to bring the Epic Games Store and Fortnite to iOS devices in Europe thanks to the Digital Markets Act (DMA),” the statement said.
The DMA is part of EU legislation that forces Apple to enable third-party app stores on iPhones and iPads.
“To our surprise, Apple has terminated that account and we are now unable to develop the Epic Games Store for iOS. This is a serious violation of the DMA and shows that Apple has no intention of allowing true competition on iOS devices,” Epic’s website said.
Apple responded in a statement to the Evening Standard.
“Epic’s egregious breach of its contractual obligations to Apple has led the courts to find that Apple has the right to terminate ‘any or all subsidiaries, affiliates and/or other entities controlled by Epic Games’ at any time and in Apple’s sole discretion.’ In light of Epic’s past and present conduct, Apple has decided to exercise that right,” it said.
Epic Games also released its correspondence with Apple executives, including an email from Phil Schiller. He is a long-time Apple executive often seen at major Apple presentations. He is described as an Apple Fellow “responsible for running the App Store and Apple Events.”
“We invite you to provide us with a written assurance that you are also acting in good faith and that Epic Games Sweden, despite your public actions and rhetoric, will honor all of its obligations. In simple, unqualified terms, please tell us why we should trust Epic this time,” Schiller wrote to Tim Sweeney, according to published Epic Games documents.
Schiller is here, at least in part, referring to previous attempts by Epic Games to circumvent Apple’s payment system. This results in at least 30 per cut going to Apple.
Epic Games added third-party payment support to the Fortnite app in 2020, prompting Apple to pull the wildly popular game from the App Store.
The same thing happened on Android’s Google Play, but Fortnite has since been playable on Android phones thanks to a process called sideloading. This is where apps that are not downloaded via the Google Play app store are installed on Android devices.
While Epic Games has in the past violated rules established by platform holders such as Apple, this latest move could potentially lead to hefty fines for Apple.
On March 4, Apple was fined £1.5 billion following an EU investigation. It concluded that it suppressed competition from music streaming services, favoring its own Apple Music over rivals including Spotify.
However this long-running battle ends, there is still some hope that UK players will be able to play Fortnite natively on iPhone and iPad. The EU ruling that third-party app stores should be allowed on iOS does not apply to the UK.
The Standard has contacted Apple and Epic Games for comment.