According to a recent announcement by the well-known game company, Epic Games, expansion plans for its digital game storefront, the Epic Games Store and its popular battle royale game Fortnite have been significantly delayed on iOS devices in Europe. This has transpired following the termination of the developer account by Apple.
Epic Games had stated mid-February that it had successfully acquired an Apple developer account, which was anticipated to aid in the launch of the Epic Games Store and Fortnite in Europe within the upcoming year.
The new European Union regulation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), was a significant feature of this plan. This Act was designed to prevent so-called market 'gatekeepers' like Apple from leveraging their dominant market positions to unfairly limit competition.
Yet, in a shocking turn of events, Epic revealed in a blog post that their developer account had been terminated by Apple. Recent criticisms towards Apple’s policies and past confrontations with the Fortnite creators were cited as reasons for this action.
A legal battle over antitrust issues has been ongoing between the two companies since August 2020, when Epic pioneered a new direct payment alternative in Fortnite, attempting to sidestep Apple’s 30% platform fees. This move led to the removal of Fortnite from the App Store and the termination of Epic’s original developer account. Epic stated this recent account termination was a major breach of the DMA, revealing Apple’s unwillingness to promote competition on iOS devices.
Apple’s termination of Epic's developer account, they suggest, was a direct attack on a significant potential competitor for the Apple App Store. Epic suggests this move was specifically designed to illustrate to other developers the consequences of questioning Apple's practices or attempting to compete with them.
In response to these actions, Apple has defended its right to terminate Epic’s developer account through its own statement. They argued that Epic's ‘egregious breach’ of its contractual obligations vindicated the termination under court orders, and this lead to Apple exercising these rights due to Epic's continuous past and present actions.
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