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.