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Epic expands lawsuit against Apple
Apple has responded to Epic’s breach of App Store terms of service and their subsequent anti-Apple PR campaign by announcing that Apple will revoke Epic’s development licenses and accounts on August 28th.
Epic introduced measures for circumventing Apple and Google’s cut of in-game purchases, and in response both Apple and Google removed Fortnite from their stores.
Apple has now gone one step further, by essentially threatening to block all of Epic’s products including the Unreal Engine from their platforms. Epic has responded by widening the scope of their lawsuit against Apple, asking the courts to stop this “act of retaliation.”
- Epic will be losing revenue from iOS, but Apple’s move also hurts developers who sell Unreal Engine games on Apple platforms
- Epic has deep pockets and is backed by Chinese tech giant Tencent, but Apple literally has the highest market capitalization in the world
- Should Epic win the lawsuits against Google and Apple, the way apps are distributed on their platforms could change forever
God-like: Apple’s rather drastic measures against Epic has surprised some, while others suspect this might have been Epic’s plan all along in an attempt to goad Apple into demonstrating anti-consumer behaviour. Expect the battle between these companies to intensify as Apple’s deadline draws closer.