Epic are asking US court to prevent Apple from removing Fortnite and Unreal Engine access

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Epic are asking US court to prevent Apple from removing Fortnite and Unreal Engine accessEpic say they’re facing irreparable harm

Epic say they’re facing irreparable harm

It was too much to hope for that Epic Games and Apple would take their fight quietly to a court room, it seems. After their very dramatic1984 propaganda spinoff video, Epic are committed to having it out in public. The latest legal maneuver in the proceedings comes from Epic, who have asked the a US district court for northern California to prevent Apple from terminating their developer program account and reinstateFortnitein the App Store.

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. We are asking the court to stop this retaliation. Details here:https://t.co/3br1EHmyd8— Epic Games Newsroom (@EpicNewsroom)August 17, 2020To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings

Regardless of its legal viability, Epic’s concern for Fortnite isn’t exactly emotionally compelling. As Alice 0 noticed last week, the quick sequence of events that kicked off the scuffle between these two Goliaths suggests that it was premeditated on Epic’s part. Even if they consider the cause a good one, they likely knew that Fortnite would be collateral damage in the short term. Granted, they are right that Fortnite’s removal leaves players in the lurch.

Epic’s argument over the Unreal Engine, however, is more sympathetic. Not only are Unreal Engine and Fortnite separate products in Epic’s stable, but disrupting Unreal development will likely have negative impact on those who are not party to the suit—other developers currently using Unreal to develop iOS applications.

With any luck, a decision on Epic’s injunction request will be the last visible jostle before both companies quietly get down to specifics behind closed doors for a year or more. I doubt we should be so lucky though. If not that, I’ll at least hope that whatever decision the court makes will prevent harm to other developers who are just trying to do their dang jobs beneath Epic and Apple’s giant feet.