Epic revealed today that Apple is terminating its developer accounts and cutting off the firm from its iOS and Mac developer tools. So Epic has filed a second lawsuit asking the U.S. District Court of California to stop this retaliation.
“Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store and has informed Epic that on Friday, August 28 Apple will terminate all our developer accounts and cut Epic off from iOS and Mac development tools,” Epic tweeted today. “We are asking the court to stop this retaliation.”
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In the new lawsuit, Epic explains that it wishes the court to prevent Apple “restricting, suspending, or terminating any Epic entity from Apple’s Developer Program, on the basis that Epic enabled in-app payment processing in Fortnite through means other than [Apple’s in-app purchase program] or on the basis of the steps Epic took to do so.” The firm says that this retaliation will cause it irreparable harm and that its first lawsuit against Apple is likely to succeed because Apple’s business practices violate the Sherman Act, a cornerstone of U.S. antitrust law.
“The consequences from Apple’s actions are immediate and grave,” the new lawsuit claims. “Apple’s actions to block Epic from accessing the suite of tools all developers use to make software compatible with Apple products is a direct attack on the ongoing viability of the Unreal Engine. It would make it impossible for Epic to continue developing the engine for use on iOS and macOS devices. Third-party developers who rely on the Unreal Engine to power their software on Apple devices will not choose to use the Unreal Engine if it is incompatible with Apple OSs.”
Between its two lawsuits, Epic makes an excellent, well-researched, and well-documented legal attack on Apple’s business practices. I advise anyone who backs Apple in this case to please read both of them in full to truly understand the stakes and the impact that Apple’s behavior has had and will continue to have on developers and consumers.
That said, I do find one aspect of this second suit to be troubling for Epic: Apple is threatening to terminate Epic’s developer account only if Epic doesn’t revert Fortnite to the version that didn’t include its own in-app payment system. While I feel that Epic is right to fight Apple on this topic, making this simple change would allow it to continue updating Fortnite and the Unreal Engine, and stay in the Apple Developer Program while the first case makes its way through the court system. This is the kind of reasonable behavior that Epic and others expect of Apple. We might expect it of Epic as well.
Hifihedgehog
<blockquote><em><a href="#562228">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>Thank you. Apple is an anti-trust bully and hopefully will finally get their just desserts. This is a landmark lawsuit and yet so many techies and fanboys are blind to what is ensuing, it is mindboggling.</p>
dftf
<blockquote><em><a href="#562129">In reply to toukale:</a></em></blockquote><p><em>"CNBC reported last week in the last 30 days fortnite earnings were as follow: iOS $43 million, [Google Play Store] $3.3 million despite Android being a bigger market"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Interesting… I wonder how-much comes from console (Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo) and computer (Windows, macOS, Linux) sales? Unreal 4, the current engine, is supported on all of them. I wonder if Apple is overall their biggest revenue-source or all of the console-games that use their engine combined would be bigger?</p>
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><em><a href="#562059">In reply to scovious:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>why? Why are people suddenly acting as though gaming on the Mac matters when up until this post those same people were probably mocking the entire idea of it?</p>
Hifihedgehog
<blockquote><em><a href="#562059">In reply to scovious:</a></em></blockquote><p>Good thing too. Apple deserves it. I hope Epic pulls the Unreal Engine so people realize just much antitrust precedence Apple has been violating and has gone unchallenged for a decade strong in those violations. The fact I have to violate my warranty to install the apps I want the way I want in 2020 is absurd. Do we have 2020 vision folks? Have we all forgotten what happened when Microsoft pulled similar shenanigans and got slapped with millions in fines? Remember the Netscape, Windows Media Player and similar situations and outcomes? This needs to all get fixed pronto. Get off the techie fanboy boats and remove the techie rose-colored glasses. Apple is a law-breaking operation that is oppressive to its devs and they need to own up to it all.</p>
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><em><a href="#562162">In reply to toukale:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>But they created the harm. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p>
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><em><a href="#562220">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>If people think the contract isn’t valid. Fine. That’s a great argument. Debatable though.</p><p><br></p><p>But trying to make this into some sort of life and death situation for Epic and suggesting that a court needs to intervene to save the company and force Apple to allow Epic to violate a contract while the court goes through the process of determining whether the contract is valid seems like a terrible way to handle this.</p><p><br></p><p>The question isn’t whether Epic can stay afloat. This isn’t even a “shareholders are getting screwed” situation. It’s Epic, a privately-owned company, making slightly fewer millions of dollars until this plays out.</p><p><br></p><p>What the court SHOULD do is tell Epic they need to revert to the version of Fortnite that existed prior to when they broke the agreement.</p><p><br></p><p>Refusing to do so should result in court-ordered sanctions.</p>
Hifihedgehog
<blockquote><em><a href="#562220">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>Exactly. In 2020, on iOS, I cannot sideload apps, I cannot change my default apps, and I cannot use any other apps than those on their Store. How is this unchallenged? If this was Microsoft and Windows in the 1990s, you would see hundreds of millions rewarded to the devs for M$'s offense. Apple has been an position of breaking the precedent of hundreds of anti-trust lawsuits for almost a decade now. This lawsuit is long overdue. To all who have any common sense still left, you better hope Epic wins or Apple will continue to abuse anti-trust at the expense of millions of devs worldwide.</p>
BrianEricFord
<p>Meh. I’ve read them both and I think Epic makes an excellent case for the court of public opinion and a tossup case for actual courts.</p><p><br></p><p>I also think Epic should realize that waging a flippant war in the court of public opinion is funny, but will grow tiresome for any judge eventually tasked with actually applying the law to whatever legal arguments they make in court.</p><p><br></p><p>That’s especially true when seeking emergency relief that basically asks a judge to force Apple to continue to allow Epic to breach the contract they signed WHILE litigating the issue. Not sure why any judge in their right mind would tell Apple that they’ve got to continue to let Epic break the rules before it’s even been determined that the rules aren’t perfectly cromulent.</p><p><br></p><p>Epic reverting to the status quo while the legal process plays out isn’t going to cause any risk to Epic’s business. In fact, the opposite is likely true.</p>
dftf
<p>Interesting that just from the Wikipedia article "Unreal Engine" it says that (1) Epic typically ask for 5% of revenue from sales; (2) although there is no-fee if you publish your game through the Epic Store; (3) from Jan 1, 2020, until you have earnt $1m in revenue, they won't take any fee (applicable to those who don't publish via the Epic Store) and (4) you can download the source-code for the engine, to get started making your app or game, for free from GitHub.</p><p><br></p><p>In contrast, Apple charge 30% in year one, which many small and first-time developers on Twitter say is quite crippling (though it drops to 15% every-year afterwards); it costs $99 each-year to be in the "Apple Developer Program" ($299 for enterprises); you can only develop iOS apps on macOS, so have to factor-in a mac purchase ($799 mac Mini or $999 macBook Air); you also have to pay $99 a year to publish apps on the iOS store ($99 covers every app you publish that year, it's not a per-app charge).</p><p><br></p><p>So your first-year on iOS will cost a minimum of $1000 (assuming you go for the cheapest mac Mini, and not a more-expensive computer!) and 30% of whatever revenue you make. And unlike Epic, I'm not aware Apple have any revenue-ceiling an app must go-past before they start to take money from you.</p>
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><em><a href="#562253">In reply to dftf:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>All of the stuff you’ve just mentioned is a tax write off.</p>