Apple Officially Terminated Epic’s Fortnite Account – Here’s What That Means

Apple has officially made good on its promise to terminate Epic Games’ App Store account, effectively pulling not only Fortnite but all of the company’s other game titles from sale on the App Store.

The saga began earlier this month when Apple kicked Fortnite out of the App Store following a stealth update by Epic to enable their own in-app purchasing system in the game — a clear violation of the App Store rules that allowed Epic to bypass Apple’s payment system and deny Apple its 30% commission.

Of course, Epic Games has been around on the App Store long enough to know the rules very well, so it was obvious from its inception that this was a premeditated move by the Fortnite developer, and it turns out Epic had a lawsuit ready to go against Apple in anticipation of Fortnite’s removal.

What Epic may not have expected, however, was Apple’s second punch, which was not only to pull Fortnite from the App Store, but also threaten to remove Epic’s developer accounts if the company didn’t come back into compliance with its developer agreement by August 28th.

Apple’s basis for doing this was that Epic Games had very specifically worked to deceive Apple by making a sneaky end-run around the App Store review process, which was a clear violation of the contract between the two companies. Apple technically had every right to terminate Epic’s developer account immediately, but it chose to give Epic time to reconsider its decision.

However, Apple also fired a very wide shot in the process, threatening to terminate not only Epic’s accounts used for its games such as Fortnite, but also the separate Epic account used to develop the Unreal Engine — an integral part of many other games.

This was Apple’s thermonuclear option, and naturally Epic didn’t take it lying down; Epic requested that the courts intervene to block Apple from terminating its developer accounts, but in a rather brassy move it went even further, asking the courts to order Apple to return Fortnite to the App Store, with its rule-breaking in-app purchasing system in place.

In other words, Epic was essentially asking the courts to issue a preliminary injunction in its favour, long before the actual lawsuit even goes to trial. Naturally, the courts rejected this idea, opting to maintain the status quo, which meant that Apple’s App Store rules stand until and unless the courts actually decide otherwise. However, the judge also ruled that Apple was going too far by threatening to terminate the developer account used for Unreal Engine, since that was not a proportional response to Epic’s violation, and it would also upset the status quo and injure uninvolved third parties.

When it came to Fortnite, however, the courts squarely sided with Apple’s stance that Epic Games had created the situation, and that it was therefore in its power to resolve the situation simply by coming back into compliance with Apple’s rules while it waits for the outcome of its actual lawsuit.

So with Epic’s motion for an injunction refused by the courts, Apple terminated Epic Games’ developer account on Friday, as it had originally said it would do.

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. 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

As Apple noted in its statement, and Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed, Epic did attempt to submit additional Fortnite builds to the App Store after the initial ban, including a Season 4 update, however each of these builds continued to offer Epic’s direct payment system, so it’s likely Epic was merely poking the bear here and trying to make its point, as it’s doubtful they’d be naive enough to believe that Apple was actually going to back down.

If you’re not a Fortnite player, you may not care all that much about this whole brouhaha. While the case itself has far-reaching implications that go far beyond whether people can play Fortnite on their iPhone and iPad, it’s also fair to say that it will likely be years before we actually see any impact from all of this on the broader industry. Epic’s actual lawsuit isn’t even likely to begin until sometime next year, and it could run on for years after that, especially when factoring in potential appeals.

What This All Means

In the short term, the removal of Epic Games’ developer account now means that Fortnite is officially and fully off the App Store in every way.

Not only that, however, but the other games that were on the App Store under Epic’s banner have also been removed, since they’re part of the same developer account.

Most significantly for Fortnite players, though, this also means that you’ll no longer be able to reinstall the game.

Prior to Epic’s termination from the App Store, Fortnite had merely been removed from sale; users who had previously downloaded and installed the game could still install it on any of their devices or even their family devices.

Now, however, Fortnite is gone for good, meaning it will no longer appear in your purchase history.

Can I Still Play Fortnite?

That said, as long as you have Fortnite installed on your iPhone or iPad, you’ll still be able to play, but if you delete it, you won’t be able to get it back. Further, in-app purchases within the Fortnite app through the App Store will no longer work either, since there’s no developer account for Apple to pay the money to. Of course, Epic’s own purchasing system is still in place, and that should continue to work fine, but with the new Fortnite season not coming to iOS devices, there’s arguably not much point.

Notably, Epic has also chosen to suspend further development of the Mac version of Fortnite, even though that version is a direct download and not submitted through the Mac App Store, although it is presumably developed using the same developer account as the iOS version.

What’s Next?

There is a remote possibility that the landscape could change again, since last week’s court decision was merely a preliminary ruling, handed down quickly due to the impending August 28th deadline that had been issued by Apple. A full hearing on Epic’s motion for an injunction is still scheduled to be held on September 28th, giving both parties time to file additional arguments. Epic will no doubt continue its fight to have the courts order Fortnite restored as-is while awaiting the outcome of the larger trial, while Apple will almost certainly maintain its stance that Fortnite can return if it agrees to abide by Apple’s rules — the same rules that Epic Games originally agreed to and has already been complying with for years.

However, it’s extremely unlikely that the courts will rule in Epic’s favour to force the return of Fortnite to the App Store at this point.

Epic’s actual lawsuit against Apple won’t likely even begin until next year, so the courts are a long way from deciding who is actually right or wrong in this case. What Epic is asking for right now is simply for the courts to allow Fortnite to exist in the App Store, with its own Epic payments system in place, before the courts have actually decided that Apple isn’t allowed to block apps from using their own payment systems.

Naturally, courts rarely deviate from the status quo when it comes to cases like these, as we’ve already seen in the preliminary ruling, so unless Epic’s lawyers have some more hidden cards up their sleeves, it seems likely that the September hearing will just rubber-stamp the decision that’s already been made.

Meanwhile, with the removal of Fortnite, Apple has begun promoting PUBG on the App Store, which was rather ironically also held up by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney as an example of a game that uses the company’s Unreal Engine.

Epic’s developer account for the Unreal Engine has of course not been blocked, since the court issued an injunction preventing Apple from carrying out that part of its threat.

To be clear, however, even if the courts hadn’t stayed Apple’s hand, the action against Epic regarding Unreal Engine would not have resulted in the removal of games like PUBG. What was at stake here was Epic’s ability to continue developing and supporting the Unreal Engine on iOS, which would have had a longer-term impact on third-party games that use the Unreal Engine as they found themselves unable to fix bugs and address compatibility issues with newer iOS versions.