The ongoing situation regarding Epic Games vs Apple, vis-a-vis Fortnite being removed from the App Store continues to evolve and get more interesting by the day. With neither of the two companies appearing to back down, Microsoft has now weighed in on the situation, officially announcing its support of Epic Games.
Taking to Twitter, Phil Spencer announced that “Today we filed a statement in support of Epic's request to keep access to the Apple SDK for its Unreal Engine. Ensuring that Epic has access to the latest Apple technology is the right thing for gamer developers & gamers.”
What Spencer is referring to is the fact that in the wake of Epic Games breaking the Apple App Store terms of service by adding its own payment method and circumventing Apple’s own within Fortnite, the popular Battle Royale shooter was removed from the store.
Today we filed a statement in support of Epic's request to keep access to the Apple SDK for its Unreal Engine. Ensuring that Epic has access to the latest Apple technology is the right thing for gamer developers & gamers https://t.co/72bLdDkvUx
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) August 23, 2020
Furthermore, following the filing of a lawsuit by Epic Games, Apple removed Epic Games’ developer license, threatening not only Epic’s own applications, but all those that run on Unreal Engine. This debacle all originated from the fact that Epic Games believes that Apple’s 30% cut of all transactions on its platform is too high – with the engine developer taking matters into its own hands.
Though it makes sense that Microsoft would support Epic Games, it is still curious nonetheless to see the console manufacturer take an official stance against Apple. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone else weighs in on the matter, and how this will shake out, when all is said and done.
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KitGuru says: What do you think about the whole situation? Are you on either’s side? Who do you think will ultimately come out on top? Let us know down below.