In a surprise new turn of event, Microsoft has chimed in the legal battle between Epic Games and Apple. Microsoft has released a ‘statement of support’ for Epic Games, in particular with regard to Apple blocking the work on the Unreal Engine in their ecosystem.
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
Things are getting heated in the gaming industry. Epic Games is going aggressively against – what they believe – are unfair practices by Apple when it comes to a fair playing ground in the Apple App Store. It all started with Epic allowing users of Fortnite to purchase the in-game currency V-Bucks directly through them, circumventing Apple from earning their share. Something very normal on the App Store.
Denying Epic access to Apple’s SDK and other development tools will prevent Epic from supporting Unreal Engine on iOS and macOS, and will place Unreal Engine and those game creators that have built, are building, and may build games on it at a substantial disadvantage.
Apple swiftly reacted by kicking Fortnite off their store for which Epic immediately files a lawsuit, with the same happening on Android and Google. Apple one-upped Epic again by revoking their developers’ license which meant the company could no longer create and developer either Fortnite or their Unreal game engine for iOS devices. A major blow for Epic whose game engine licensing business is a big part of their company.
It’s exactly the Unreal Engine part that has now led to Microsoft to chime in the controversy and openly support Epic Games. Microsoft is of the position that the Unreal Engine is a major tool used by many third-party developers whose projects and future get jeopardized by Apple’s recent actions.
It’ll be interesting to see how Apple reacts to this pressure by another tech giant and whether Epic will be successful in court. One thing is for sure, Tim Sweeney and Epic Games mean business by taking on Apple and Google.
