Apple Just Deleted Epic's App Store Account: Fortnite Axe Gets Serious

By Chris Burns

Apple just made a relatively serious move in their legal row with Epic Games over in-app purchases. In the afternoon on Friday, the 28th of August, 2020, Apple removed Epic Games' developer account and all listings from their mobile app store. This goes one step further than the earlier action by Apple in removing the game Fortnite from said App Store.

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"We are disappointed that we have had to terminate the Epic Games account on the App Store," said Apple in a statement this afternoon. "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."

The situation to which Apple refers is one in which Epic Games initiated an in-app purchase system in Fortnite, attempting to bypass Apple's 30% cut of all in-app purchases within games and apps as such. Per the Apple statement this afternoon, while the court recommended Epic comply with App Store guidelines while their court case moved forward...

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"Epic has refused," said the Apple statement. "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." Earlier this week, Epic Games confirmed the bad news about the next major update for Fortnite – and how it'll basically cut the game into pieces for the various device factions.

Epic Games has not yet responded to this latest development as this article was set to publish. Apple's statement concluded saying that they hoped they'd be able to work together with Epic again in the future, but that "unfortunately that is not possible today."

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