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Today, Apple followed through with part of their threat that they would terminate Epic Games' developer account. This is not the same as their threat to terminate the accounts of all Unreal Engine developers. That specific case was shot down in court earlier this week. However, that ruling still left the door open for Apple to terminate the account specifically related to Epic Games, the one used by Fortnite.
Today's action by Apple specifically targets the account used by Epic Games to publish games on the App Store. This encompasses games like Fortnite and Infinity Blade. A search for Epic Games on the App Store now returns zero results. However, those who already have these games downloaded on their devices can continue to use and play the games without issue, at least for now. This just completely blocks Epic's ability to update these titles with the latest updates, be they content updates or bug fixes. This also prevents Epic from releasing anything new on the App Store.
The impact is already being felt on Fortnite. A new Season 4 update was released that sees a lot of Marvel characters added to the game for a special event. This content is not able to be updated to iOS users, for obvious reasons.
Fortnite has been banned from the App Store since August 13 when Epic decided they did not want to play by the rules they agreed to with Apple. Rules, mind you, that every other developer must adhere to in order to appear on the App Store. Epic had implemented a payment method for Fortnite that completely bypassed Apple, which is a major violation of Apple's terms of service. This was a calculated move by Epic because they immediately filed a lawsuit against Apple the same day that Fortnite was removed from the store. Epic then tried to gain sympathy by using pre-pared propaganda to weaponize their young audience in a disgusting display of hubris.
In a statement issued to MacRumors, Apple confirms the removal of Epic's account and says that it's disappointing that it had to happen.
"We are disappointed that we have had to terminate the Epic Games account on the ‌App Store‌. We have worked with the team at Epic Games for many years on their launches and releases. The court recommended that Epic comply with the ‌App Store‌ guidelines while their case moves forward, guidelines they’ve followed for the past decade until they created this situation. Epic has refused. Instead they repeatedly submit Fortnite updates designed to violate the guidelines of the ‌App Store‌. This is not fair to all other developers on the ‌App Store‌ and is putting customers in the middle of their fight. We hope that we can work together again in the future, but unfortunately that is not possible today."
