Apple applauds court for denying Epic Games' request to restore 'Fortnite'

AppleInsider · August 25, 2020 5:40PM

Apple on Tuesday applauded a California court for denying Epic Games' request for a temporary restraining order on its removal of "Fortnite," reiterating it would restore the game if Epic removed direct payments.

Credit: Epic Games

In a ruling handed down Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied Epic's request to get Apple to bring "Fortnite" back to the App Store. During the hearing, Rogers said that Epic's situation was one of its own making.

In a statement to AppleInsider and other venues on Tuesday, Apple applauded the decision and said it was ready to bring "Fortnite" back to the App Store if it removed the direct payment feature -- which is a violation of its developer guidelines.

"We thank the court for recognizing that Epic's problem is entirely self-inflicted and is in their power to resolve. Our very first priority is making sure App Store users have a great experience in a safe and trusted environment, including iPhone users who play 'Fortnite' and who are looking forward to the game's next season," Apple said.

Epic Games originally forced Apple into removing "Fortnite" by implementing a feature that would bypass Apple's cut of in-app purchases. As Epic's lawyers explained in the hearing Monday, the game maker made the move to protest Apple's alleged anti-competitive behavior and its 15% to 30% commission.

Apple, for its part, agreed with the judge's conclusion that Epic Games alone was responsible for Fortnite's removal from the App Store.

"We agree with Judge Gonzalez-Rogers that 'the sensible way to proceed' is for Epic to comply with the App Store guidelines and continue to operate while the case proceeds. If Epic takes the steps the judge has recommended, we will gladly welcome 'Fortnite' back onto iOS. We look forward to making our case to the court in September," Apple added in its statement.

Notably, Apple said nothing of its pressure on Epic Games' Unreal Engine -- which is used by many game developers. The Unreal Engine is maintained through a developer account attached to Epic International, a business entity technically separate from the primary Epic Games account.

In Monday's decision, Judge Rogers ruled that Apple could not retaliate against the Unreal Engine developer account for actions taken by Epic Games.

In the wake of Fortnite being removed, Epic filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple alleging monopolistic behavior. Since the hearing Monday concerned Epic's request for a temporary restraining order, Judge Rogers made no decision concerning the lawsuit.

georgie01 · August 25, 2020 7:52PM

Obviously the right decision, and I hope the ‘heads up’ to Apple by the judge that their argument may not be the best one will help in their preparation for the upcoming court case.

Epic has made me lose all respect for them in how they’re handling this. They aren’t pursuing a noble cause as the ‘oppressed‘. They’re being arrogant bullies, thinking they deserve handouts from Apple and that they can do better—if they can do better, then I’d like to see them make a successful operating system with unique devices and develop an ecosystem which people want to pay for. Then their problem is entirely solved. Instead they want to ride on the back of Apple’s hard work and success, and they want to do it for free.

edited August 2020

cornchip · August 25, 2020 7:58PM

I realize this is going to be a dumb question, but I don’t exactly understand how the Unreal Engine thing is working on a technical level.

I get that Epic owns/maintains “Unreal”, but how was Apple able to restrict access to it for other developers? But then turn it back on? Without turning back on Fortnite? And is Unreal available to Android devs too? Did the restriction also affect them?

Very in the dark on this one...

killroy · August 25, 2020 8:20PM

cornchip said:

I realize this is going to be a dumb question, but I don’t exactly understand how the Unreal Engine thing is working on a technical level.

I get that Epic owns/maintains “Unreal”, but how was Apple able to restrict access to it for other developers? But then turn it back on? Without turning back on Fortnite? And is Unreal available to Android devs too? Did the restriction also affect them?

Very in the dark on this one...

Epic has shell companies. So from who, as an developer that has an Apple account, would you get the rights to use Unreal engine in your game?

Remember Unreal engine is used for other things than games.

aderutter · August 25, 2020 8:26PM

Epic Games develops Fortnite with an ios developer account and Epic International develops Unreal with a mac developer account.
If Apple had terminated Epic Internationals mac developer account then Unreal would have stopped working (for everyone) and Epic International wouldn’t be able to ship a new version with that mac developer account.

beats · August 25, 2020 8:27PM

cornchip said:

I realize this is going to be a dumb question, but I don’t exactly understand how the Unreal Engine thing is working on a technical level.

I get that Epic owns/maintains “Unreal”, but how was Apple able to restrict access to it for other developers? But then turn it back on? Without turning back on Fortnite? And is Unreal available to Android devs too? Did the restriction also affect them?

Very in the dark on this one...

Unreal is (probably) the world's most popular game engine that Epic licenses to developers. So say you're a game developer and need an engine you can just license Epic's for a fee. Apple pulled the license compatibility for NEW games on their platforms since Epic violated Apple's terms. Old games aren't affected since they're already "shipped".

Gaming is alive and well on Macs since Epic said banning it on Apple platforms would cause irreparable harm to the company.

Unreal is available to everyone but most iKnockoffs have a hard time running it since it's power intensive.

jknash · August 25, 2020 8:55PM

Right decision in my view epic are just launching and pushing their own game Store and I find this whole thing a little hypocritical. its a me to copy at the end of the day and they will charge like steam or any of the others... I want apple to police the App Store to keep quality and security up...

bushman4 · August 25, 2020 9:04PM

In order for the experience to be good Apple has to be hands on in the App Store
Epic couldn’t care less about the customer. They only care about $$$$$$

78bandit · August 25, 2020 9:18PM

This was the right decision even though I hope Epic wins. It is not a clear cut case either way. In the absence of clear authority what Apple is doing is illegal, Epic should be required to continue on with the status quo until the courts and/or regulators rule.

aderutter · August 25, 2020 10:11PM

In the absence of clear authority what Apple is doing is legal. Innocent until proven guilty.

cy_starkman · August 25, 2020 10:47PM

78Bandit said:

This was the right decision even though I hope Epic wins. It is not a clear cut case either way. In the absence of clear authority what Apple is doing is illegal, Epic should be required to continue on with the status quo until the courts and/or regulators rule.

illegal? so valve, sony, microsoft, google and nintendo are all doing illegal things by charging customers a retail markup?

so i guess you see shops selling clothes, food or anything else for above wholesale prices as illegal?

how do retailers make money in your alternate reality?

flydog · August 25, 2020 10:47PM

georgie01 said:

Obviously the right decision, and I hope the ‘heads up’ to Apple by the judge that their argument may not be the best one will help in their preparation for the upcoming court case.

Where is this “heads up”? According to the ruling, Epic didn’t establish ANY of the requirements for a TRO, including likelihood of success on the merits.

Seems that Epic is the one who needs to come up with a better argument.

edited August 2020

beats · August 25, 2020 11:01PM

cy_starkman said:

78Bandit said:

This was the right decision even though I hope Epic wins. It is not a clear cut case either way. In the absence of clear authority what Apple is doing is illegal, Epic should be required to continue on with the status quo until the courts and/or regulators rule.

illegal? so valve, sony, microsoft, google and nintendo are all doing illegal things by charging customers a retail markup?

so i guess you see shops selling clothes, food or anything else for above wholesale prices as illegal?

how do retailers make money in your alternate reality?

"This was the right decision even though I hope Epic wins."

That oxymoron should have told you all you needed to know about the poster.

elijahg · August 25, 2020 11:24PM

Beats said:

cornchip said:

I realize this is going to be a dumb question, but I don’t exactly understand how the Unreal Engine thing is working on a technical level.

I get that Epic owns/maintains “Unreal”, but how was Apple able to restrict access to it for other developers? But then turn it back on? Without turning back on Fortnite? And is Unreal available to Android devs too? Did the restriction also affect them?

Very in the dark on this one...

Unreal is (probably) the world's most popular game engine that Epic licenses to developers. So say you're a game developer and need an engine you can just license Epic's for a fee. Apple pulled the license compatibility for NEW games on their platforms since Epic violated Apple's terms. Old games aren't affected since they're already "shipped".

Gaming is alive and well on Macs since Epic said banning it on Apple platforms would cause irreparable harm to the company.

Unreal is available to everyone but most iKnockoffs have a hard time running it since it's power intensive.

Actually, they charge nothing until the revenue from your application/game/whatever exceeds $1m, and after that they charge 5% royalties. If you don't sell (i.e. you give away) a product with UE in, there's nothing to pay at all. They didn't pull any license for UE, existing or otherwise. They threatened to prevent Epic from using Apple's developer tools to update and maintain the Unreal Engine, which would have adversely affected thousands of devs that use it, dragging into the fold developers and ultimately customers who are nothing to do with Fortnite. The judge saw this was the case, and rightly prevented Apple from screwing an unrelated product and the devs who use it. If Apple had terminated Epic's agreement, devs who use UE could still have submitted to the App Store unaffected, but the lack of maintenance for UE would have caused issues eventually.

edited August 2020

crowley · August 25, 2020 11:27PM

Beats said:

cornchip said:

I realize this is going to be a dumb question, but I don’t exactly understand how the Unreal Engine thing is working on a technical level.

I get that Epic owns/maintains “Unreal”, but how was Apple able to restrict access to it for other developers? But then turn it back on? Without turning back on Fortnite? And is Unreal available to Android devs too? Did the restriction also affect them?

Very in the dark on this one...

Unreal is (probably) the world's most popular game engine that Epic licenses to developers. So say you're a game developer and need an engine you can just license Epic's for a fee. Apple pulled the license compatibility for NEW games on their platforms since Epic violated Apple's terms. Old games aren't affected since they're already "shipped".

My understanding is that Apple were threatening to pull developer certificates so that Epic couldn't do any further work on their engine using Apple Developer Tools. That wouldn't break anything straight away, but would effectively freeze the Unreal Engine on iOS in time, and make it vulnerable to a future iOS update causing problems. No third party developer would license an engine with such a uncertain future.

edited August 2020

fastasleep · August 25, 2020 11:27PM

Beats said:

Apple pulled the license compatibility for NEW games on their platforms since Epic violated Apple's terms. Old games aren't affected since they're already "shipped".

They did not pull their account, they threatened to. They still have access to the tools to keep developing Unreal Engine on Mac.

fastasleep · August 25, 2020 11:30PM

jknash said:

Right decision in my view epic are just launching and pushing their own game Store and I find this whole thing a little hypocritical. its a me to copy at the end of the day and they will charge like steam or any of the others... I want apple to police the App Store to keep quality and security up...

The Epic Game Store already exists for Mac and PC — you can download Epic Games Launcher on your Mac, and yes they take a cut from sales in the store (albeit less than Apple does in the Mac App Store). They want to launch a mobile store on iOS/Android that does the same thing but bypasses Apple/Google's store and fees.

elijahg · August 25, 2020 11:31PM

aderutter said:
If Apple had terminated Epic Internationals mac developer account then Unreal would have stopped working (for everyone) and Epic International wouldn’t be able to ship a new version with that mac developer account.

That is completely wrong. Epic International doesn't ship anything with its Mac developer account. They use it to maintain the engine. The engine's entire source is downloadable by anyone, and anyone is free to make an application with it and submit it to the App Store under their own developer account. What Apple does to try and retaliate against Epic makes no difference to developers with the source code for the engine. Apple doesn't stipulate that developers don't use code by a particular party in their program. If they did, they'd have a lot more lawsuits on their hands than the one from Epic.

fastasleep · August 25, 2020 11:41PM

cornchip said:

I realize this is going to be a dumb question, but I don’t exactly understand how the Unreal Engine thing is working on a technical level.

I get that Epic owns/maintains “Unreal”, but how was Apple able to restrict access to it for other developers? But then turn it back on? Without turning back on Fortnite? And is Unreal available to Android devs too? Did the restriction also affect them?

Very in the dark on this one...

Epic allegedly has access to tools that they use to develop Unreal Engine, which is what Apple was threatening to cut them off from it seems — I'm thinking maybe some Metal tools or other API stuff that isn't simply Xcode, but not sure exactly. I'd assume if that were not the case they could continue to release Unreal Engine/Epic Games Launcher updates but having people bypass Gatekeeper to launch it given they'd not be able to notarize their app updates. There may be other limitations that would prevent third parties from publishing updates and new releases though, and I'm not entirely sure if that would be that if they block Epic's developer account that Apple would no longer notarize apps that integrate UE. I'm not quite sure how the details work there.

Yes, you can publish for Android from a Mac or PC. Presumably if you're developing on a PC, this would not affect you, unless Google did something similar to Epic's account/access.

shaneg · August 25, 2020 11:42PM

georgie01 said:

Obviously the right decision, and I hope the ‘heads up'

Epic knew that their Fortnite app was going to be blocked on iOS. But I don't believe that Epic thought that Apple was going to ban Epics developer accounts. That is why Epic stepped up again to ask the courts to stop Apple from going out of their way to punish All of Epic. So luckly Epic won that part, and now Apple cannot ban Epics Unreal game engine on iOS.

The thing is Google also banned Epics Fortnite app, but Google never tried to ban any of Epics other apps, or developer accounts. Even the judge basically said that Apple went too far.

fastasleep · August 26, 2020 12:00AM

elijahg said:

aderutter said:
If Apple had terminated Epic Internationals mac developer account then Unreal would have stopped working (for everyone) and Epic International wouldn’t be able to ship a new version with that mac developer account.

That is completely wrong. Epic International doesn't ship anything with its Mac developer account. They use it to maintain the engine. The engine's entire source is downloadable by anyone, and anyone is free to make an application with it and submit it to the App Store under their own developer account. What Apple does to try and retaliate against Epic makes no difference to developers with the source code for the engine. Apple doesn't stipulate that developers don't use code by a particular party in their program. If they did, they'd have a lot more lawsuits on their hands than the one from Epic.

Well, you're wrong too. Epic Games Launcher app which manages Unreal Engine versions, store assets, and the Unreal Editor application, are all signed by their Mac developer account owned by Epic Games International. I'm sure far more apps are developed using Unreal Editor than the downloaded C++ engine source.

I think this also goes beyond signing their Mac apps: "Apple’s retaliation represents an existential threat to Epic’s Unreal Engine. OS providers like Apple routinely make certain software and developer tools available to software developers, for free or a small fee, to enable the development of software that will run on the OS. Apple intends to deny Epic access to that widely available material. Without that access, Epic cannot develop future versions of the Unreal Engine for use on iOS or macOS."

Apple applauds court for denying Epic Games' request to restore 'Fortnite'

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