Apple on Friday terminated Epic Games’ developer account on Friday. Therefore, the Fortnite-maker can no longer offer apps for iPhone, iPad, or Mac on Apple’s App Stores. Apple did not suspend an account related to the Unreal Engine that’s used by third-party developers to make 3D games.
It follows a temporary restraining order on Monday evening, in which a judge ruled that Apple can block Fortnite but not Epic’s developer account.
″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,” Apple said. “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.”
Apple said it provided Epic Games 14 days to update Fortnite to meet its app store guidelines, after which it would suspend Epic Games’ account. Apple said this is standard practice for all developers.
MacDailyNews Take: Over the weekend, a hot dog vendor was kicked out of the local mall. A few weeks prior, the hot dog guy had asked the mall for special permission to sell hot dogs rent-free and was, as expected, denied. The hot dog vendor then decided to roll into the mall and start selling hot dogs, notifying the mall after the fact.
The hot dog guy just rolled his cart in there, plugged in his neon sign, and started selling hot dogs!
After getting booted, he went down the road and tried to do it at the next mall, too. They kicked him out, too. Now, he’s suing both malls for “antitrust violations.”
He filed a lawsuit to force the first mall to let him roll in to sell his hot dogs whenever he wants, regardless of the mall’s retail lease terms, but he – shocker! – lost.
Naturally, he’s now been banned from entering the mall.
Gee, wonder if he’ll win his remaining lawsuits?
Bottom line: Epic Games wants all of the benefits afforded to it by Apple’s App Store for free.
That hot dog analogy again. Malls don’t make it impossible for their customers to buy hot dogs anywhere else. Apple does. While Apple has a right to charge for their ecosystem, there needs to be some kind of free-market balance, it can’t just be obey or don’t exist.
Microsoft used to claim that they weren’t a monopoly because people could buy Apple if they wanted. But for free markets to work, the choice has to be REALISTIC for most consumers. Otherwise a company starts gaining government-like power, and should have government-like accountability.
Okay… time for the charges…
I want to play Senran Kagura.
I’d have to agree…… over and over and over and over and over and over and over again enough MDN
Go buy a burger
That’s the beauty of Apple’s App Store. Anyone can sell “hot dogs” and anything else. Apple not only lets you in the mall, they also give you all the equipment you need to make your product in the first place. They just ask that you pay their fee (the same 30% every other platform charges).
“And anything else”
Not trying to let the air out of your argument here, but I seem to recall a short term moratorium on fart apps.
That moment in history really stunk
It bothered me so much I felt that I really could not hold it in
False, consumers are welcomed to go to the Android Store, Xbox Device-Store, Playstation Device-Store, Windows Store, Nintendo Switch Device-Store… And Epic is welcome to create their own devices which is relatively easy these days.
you think it’s honky dory for a company to sell you hardware that is supposed to last 5 or 10 years, but that company should have sole authority to decide what software can operate on the hardware you own????????
you sound more like a Big Brother fan more than a Mac fan. iOS and the monopoly store sucks. iOS devices can and should be exactly like the Mac, letting the user control his device. the one and only reason that Apple splintered iOS off into its own app store was so that it could monopolize all software profits from its hardware. it has nothing to do with security or end user experience. otherwise, the Mac would get criticized here.
counter fanboy argument boils down to this: I know you bought a Ram truck, but now the Ram dudes have decided to stop allowing you to fuel your truck with Exxon gas. So if the Exxon station is the only one convenient to you, sell your Ram and buy a Ford or Chevy. that’s the market, all powerful Ram gets to call all the shots and you, the Ram owner, should allow yourself to get screwed without forewarnings.
dumb argument. in the future as Apple becomes more powerful and political, watch out!!!!! the next Apple political spat might be about something important to you
“For the free markets to work, the choice has to be REALISTIC for most consumers.”
Myx, please check Android market share. That option is provably realistic to (in the literal sense of the word) most consumers.
Ps. Government is the worst (or second to worst—right after Microsoft, even though we didn’t even go to xBox) analogy you can make, because what really makes government different is that it has the right to levy taxes.
Too many good games are overwhelming otherwise productive society anyway.
So don’t play them…
Why are Bluebubbles so preoccupied with what others do?
Why are you so preoccupied with what others do that you’re here every day to share?
He’s a typical libturd who feels it’s his job to interfere with other people. Turds should learn to mind their own business
Such a stupid Trumpian response. Accuse others with what you’re doing.
Speaking of minding one’s own business, explain how the Prayer Patriots did last weekend.
You seem to love it when some blowhard chickenhawk wraps himself up in the flag and foments divisionism on tweeter or on the street (which is, ironically, a socialist public thoroughfare in which we all contribute to build and maintain).
Under the mindless blanket excuse of Law&Order you love it when police get away with home invasions, er, warrantless actions.
You say nothing about mosque arsonists because freedom of religion only counts in your mind when that religion is identical to yours.
You blame big government for social ills but vote every chance possible to install white trash congressmen who proudly go about doing 2 primary things: enlarging the grossly bloated military, and trashing women’s rights.
Let me guess, you also support selfish ranchers illegally grazing their cattle on public land that taxpayers own and deserve rent for its use, like you support gutting of all pollution controls so dirty companies can make more money at the expense of Americans health. You always speak as if the public good (also including clean air & water, accessible healthcare, and education) isn’t all our business. But if you read the Constitution, you would see that the Public Welfare is a key tenet of the government contract. Your cherry picked few amendments you care about are but a small subset of what the government is supposed to do. And it is all our business if we make the stupid mistake of giving Timmy Cook unlimited power to do whatever he wants.
Because censors and bulls hit artists need calling out. Apple is where the censoring and bullshit is.
And anyway, I don’t give a crap what you’re doing. My post was about why do Bluebububbles?
“Malls don’t make it impossible for their customers to buy hot dogs anywhere else. Apple does.”
Epic have multiple ways to sell their product – not only the App Store. Even with Apple devices, Epic can sell their products via their website.
This is all about greed. Epic have used the iOS platform to grow their business. Now that they are one of the leaders in their market they want to increase their profits by cutting out Apple.
They can play this stunt now because they have already millions of customers thanks to the iOS platform. In the short term they can risk losing new customers on iOS on the chance that they can win this court case.
” Epic can sell their products via their website.”
On to my iPad? Even macs need special settings to run non-Apple-store code. How long until they shut down that opening?
The anti-trust hammer will fall…
How miserable of a life do you have to have to come to an Apple forum to complain about Apple? Are you lonely in your parents basement?
Wonder how long you can sell Playstation and Nintendo Switch games without permission on their platforms without paying to play?
At the root of the problem is Apple’s requirement that 30% of all purchases goes to Apple. 30% is exorbitant. I noticed that Facebook did a charity drive and had to give Apple 30% of the donations. I don’t think that people donating knew that Apple was doing that.