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posted by martyb on Wednesday August 19 2020, @11:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the tit-for-tat dept.

Apple threatens to boot Epic—including Unreal Engine—off Mac and iOS

The new legal battle between game developer Epic and iPhone-maker Apple continues to heat up, as Epic says Apple will be cutting it off from the developer platform for Mac and iOS before the end of this month.

Epic wrote in a court filing (PDF) that Apple said its membership in the Developer Program will be terminated as of August 28. According to Epic, Apple's move threatens not only Fortnite but also every game that uses Unreal Engine: "By August 28, Apple will cut off Epic's access to all development tools necessary to create software for Apple's platforms—including for the Unreal Engine Epic offers to third-party developers, which Apple has never claimed violated any Apple policy," Epic said.

How Apple's battle with Epic Games could affect hundreds of other games beyond Fortnite

If Apple disables Epic's developer account, then the company won't be able to maintain the Unreal Engine for iPhones and other Apple computers. Unreal is a long-standing set of technologies for displaying 3D graphics. Other game-makers license it from Epic so they don't have to re-build the same functions from scratch, and it's used in many popular games, although it's more popular on consoles and PCs than for mobile games.

Also at The Verge and VentureBeat.

Previously:
Fortnite Maker Sues Apple after Removal of Game From App Store


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by stretch611 on Thursday August 20 2020, @10:35AM

    by stretch611 (6199) on Thursday August 20 2020, @10:35AM (#1039303)

    I expect apples fanbois to completely ignore information like this and continue to love their overpriced computers/phone as well as their rose-scented flatulence. (ofc, only they think it smells like roses.)
    Instead, they will probably b!tch about epic and how the developers of programs that they used are no longer supported on their platform.

    What I really do not understand is why developers even bother with apple anymore. I understand back when the smartphone was new and there were only a few apps in the store, it was prime season to strike it rich as long as your program did something useful... even if it didn't even do it well. But now the app store is so inundated with useless crapware and so many titles, there is no way to get your app noticed without some serious cash spent on marketing... even if your app is really good and actually useful.

    It is not just the recent story about apple wanting epic to pay its protection money for its sales. We have all heard the stories about some apps that apple never approves for its stores. Even some cases where it is approved one day, than a bug patch is issued a few days later and the patch doesn't get accepted.

    Or something like Vulkan, a cross platform, high performance graphics API. It is meant to be a modern successor to OpenGL and it works on windows, linux, consoles, I understand it even works on raspberry pis... But apple refuses to let it be supported... instead apple wants everyone writing apps for apples to use Metal... a graphics library that works on Apple... and nothing else. It reminds me of the early days of the iphone when apple rejected any app not made with Objective-C... and it refused to allow apps that went through a conversion program.

    I have no love for microsoft either, (yes, I use linux,) and microsoft wants to control another walled garden with all its hardware similar to apple.... But at least microsoft has learned one thing... Don't screw with the developers... if all the devs leave you; your device becomes nothing but a really expensive paperweight.

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
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