Epic Apple Legal Battle

Pyrian on 13/8/2020 at 20:20

So, Epic opened iOS Fortnite up to outside purchases, Apple promptly decided they were violating their Terms of Service, and now Epic has filed a legal injunction, which you can read here:

(https://cdn2.unrealengine.com/apple-complaint-734589783.pdf)

Nameless Voice on 13/8/2020 at 20:35

A bit of a very technical document to link to, but not surprising since Tim Sweeney has been complaining non-stop for months about Apple's monopoly at every opportunity.

Apparently all of the various "service" apps like Netflix don't allow you to sign up for an account from their iOS apps, and don't say why. They just redirect you to open the website on your PC.
Why? Because if you sign up for anything on an iPhone, Apple demand a 30% cut. Not just of the actual apps sold on their store, but of any money transaction that involves any app on their phones.

There was also a story about some people setting up online training courses using iPads as camera/screen devices, and when they started making money, Apple came after them demanding a 30% of that too.

I personally don't understand why anyone would use an iPhone in the first place, but that's a different conversation entirely.

Starker on 13/8/2020 at 20:38

Yeah, they did the same on Google Play, but Apple was the one to take the bait.

Nameless Voice on 13/8/2020 at 20:43

I thought they just asked users to sideload Fortnite on Android, bypassing Google Play completely?
But you can't sideload on iOS, since it's a completely closed platform.

Starker on 13/8/2020 at 20:56

They eventually released the game on Google Play and then sidestepped it with their direct payment stuff: (https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/announcing-epic-direct-payment-on-mobile).

Nameless Voice on 17/8/2020 at 19:45

So, now Apple say they're going to terminate all of Epic's developer accounts and revoke their access to all Mac and iOS tools, effectively killing off Unreal Engine on their devices, including any and all games that currently use the engine.
(Presumably the games will remain as-is, but they can never receive engine updates if Epic can no longer develop for the platform.)

(https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/1295431772889649153)

WingedKagouti on 17/8/2020 at 21:55

Quote Posted by Nameless Voice

I expect that will blow up in Apple's face more than it will harm Epic. But both parties will eventually get hurt by that.

Pyrian on 17/8/2020 at 22:23

Unity's happy, lol.

Starker on 18/8/2020 at 01:19

Exclusive statement from Unity:

[video=youtube;XKdJ6DnPhzk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKdJ6DnPhzk[/video]

Jason Moyer on 18/8/2020 at 01:21

Why can't everyone just get along for China's sake.