In a new legal filing, Epic Games argues that Apple is threatening its entire ecosystem with its belligerent behavior. And it has the backing of Microsoft.
The new filing is just the latest development in the quickly escalating saga of Epic v. Apple, in which the former company alleges that Apple is abusing its dominant position in mobile and behaving in an anti-competitive fashion. Apple has attacked Epic, in turn, for violating the terms of its developer contract and is threatening to pull Epic and its Unreal Engine out of its App Store, a move that would damage many, many game developers.
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
“Over the past week, multiple Unreal Engine licensees have contacted Epic expressing grave concern over Apple’s actions and its impact on their iOS and macOS-bound projects,” the legal filing notes. “Epic submits herewith … a declaration from the General Manager of Gaming Developer Experiences at Microsoft addressing this issue.”
“Kevin Gammill, Microsoft’s General Manager of Gaming Developer Experiences, attests that there are ‘very few other options available for creators’ that offer ‘as many features and as much functionality as Unreal Engine across multiple platforms, including iOS’ and that Apple’s revocation of developer tools ‘will place Unreal Engine’ and games that use it ‘at a substantial disadvantage,” the filing notes.
“Mr. Gammill also explains that ‘Unreal Engine’s sudden loss of support for iOS and macOS would create significant costs and difficult decisions’ for game creators, who ‘would have significant sunk costs and lost time using Unreal Engine for game creation, and would have to choose between (a) starting development all over with a new game engine, (b) abandoning the iOS and macOS platforms, or (c) ceasing development entirely’.”
Microsoft, of course, has its own issues with Apple and its unfair App Store licensing policies. The software giant will soon launch an Xbox Game Pass streaming app on Android, but it is unable to do so because Apple’s rules forbid any game app from offering multiple titles, as would Microsoft’s. Apple says that it would need to examine each game the app offers in order to protect its users from abuse, while Microsoft counters that there are already rating boards that provide this service in the game industry.
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><em><a href="#563299">In reply to SRLRacing:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>which in turn means Microsoft is inviting anyone who develops for xbox to violate the terms of their agreement with the idea that Microsoft will refuse to exercise the penalties laid out for doing so.</p><p><br></p><p>The alternative appears to be that Microsoft only believes it’s okay to violate an agreement if Microsoft is impacted by the punishment.</p>
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><em><a href="#563764">In reply to Andi:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Ah, yes. The classic board game, “Duopoly.”</p>
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><em><a href="#563826">In reply to Andi:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>The problem you’re failing to recognize is there’s no room for a 3rd platform. Developers won’t support it. Consumers won’t support it, so the fact that the two major platforms (essentially) split their user-base is pretty astonishing given that traditional computing platforms were never able to achieve that.</p>
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><em><a href="#563278">In reply to toukale:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>It’s going to be a VERY long few years if every single filing is going to warrant an article on every major tech site.</p><p><br></p><p>Meanwhile, if anyone has any recommendations for an outlet that actually employs legal analysts that are looking at this with an actual emphasis on the law — rather than through the prism of ignorance and bias — please let me know. I’ve been in the legal industry for 15 years and to probably 60 or 70 product liability / civil / tech industry trials for litigation support and even I would never purport to backseat-lawyer-splain expected outcomes like every outlet writing about this does. There’s been absolutely no attempt to actually look at this from an educated standpoint at all, but a ton of people think they know what the outcome will be or should be.</p><p><br></p>
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><em><a href="#563411">In reply to Greg Green:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>yeah. That’s the sort of thing I want but ideally in a form that does for litigation analysis what FiveThirtyEight does for polling analysis. </p>
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><em><a href="#563423">In reply to Greg Green:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Hoooof. No. I used to LOVE that site because at one point it was exactly what I wanted — a great aptitude for reading the temperature of litigation he became known for — but then the author went off the deep end and became VERY partisan in his rooting for Samsung, stopped calling balls and strikes, and essentially admitted that part of his motivation was getting his own app off the ground.</p><p><br></p><p>EDIT: I did go ahead and go check it out. I will say that his analyses are pretty good. He seems to be evaluating the filings and predicting how they’ll stack up against the law and the Judge presiding over the hearings. May give him another chance.</p><p><br></p><p>EDIT AGAIN: You’re right. It’s all really good.</p>
BrianEricFord
<p>The gaslighting going on here is crazy. It remains true that if Epic wants to avoid the risk of getting cut off from developer tools all they have to do is declare a cease fire while litigation plays out and revert their current iOS build of Fortnite to the version that complied with Apple’s developer agreement. They can clearly do this because they made the offending change without ever submitting it through Apple’s update process. </p><p><br></p><p>Once that happens, Apple stops threatening the nuclear option outlined in the agreement and Sweeney goes back to being petulant for his cheering hordes of fans (which, shockingly, exist) on Twitter and lawyers make their arguments and the end result is the end result.</p><p><br></p><p>What I find interesting is Epic is suing Apple and saying that their ecosystem is so big, and so powerful, that Epic must be allowed their own marketplace, free of Apple’s rules and payment requirements. As part of that, they’ve put their Unreal Engine at risk and the legal filings against Apple essentially make the argument that Unreal is SO vital to the gaming industry that ANY interruption to its availability to its consumers would have a chilling impact on the industry. As such, Epic has to be allowed to continue to violate agreements that it argues — but no court has found — are legally invalid.</p><p><br></p><p>Maybe Unreal ought to face some lawsuits about its size and power?</p>
BrianEricFord
<blockquote><em><a href="#563771">In reply to Andi:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>You are incorrect when you say Epic’s claims are limited to payment processing.</p>