Microsoft side with Epic Games. Or rather, it is positioned in favor of the legal battle between Apple and Epic not affecting the Unreal Engine. And, as they say from Redmon, removing Epic’s developer certificate and removing its graphics engine from Apple’s SDK would significantly affect millions of developers who use it when creating both video games and applications.
Leave Unreal Engine away from war
Last week we attended what will undoubtedly be one of the controversial and biggest battles of this year between technology companies. We refer to the confrontation between Epic Games and Apple, also Google although to a lesser extent. And it is that both companies removed Fortnite from their respective App Store and Play Store for breach of its rules.
As you probably already know, the developer of the popular Battle Royale introduced a new payment option that skipped the 30% commission that both stores claim for each transaction that is made. A percentage that will certainly always be debatable whether or not it is correct, but that in the end is there like any other in numerous platforms that exist today. For example, the PlayStation or Xbox stores among many more.
Well, Epic did not completely agree, so even offering the usual payment option through the gateways of both stores, it introduced a new way where the user benefited from a 20% discount thanks to not paying 30% or Apple nor Google. But these companies did not like that, who thought that allowing such action would pose a problem with the rest of the developers as they were not fair in terms of opportunities.
That’s why the game was removed. In the case of Android it is not a big problem, because users can continue to install Fortnite by downloading the .APK from the Epic website. However, iOS users don’t. These can only have Fortnite again if it was previously downloaded. Then they can recover it from the purchased applications section, although that is not a guarantee of being able to enjoy future content.
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
However, the news now is that Microsoft has positioned itself on the side of Epic. Or rather, on the part of not leaving out Unreal Engine. And, Apple will revoke the developer license to Epic this Friday, August 28 . This decision not only affects Fortnite and other Epic games, but also its graphics engine. And that is where the big problem is according to Redmon’s company, because it would affect thousands of developers who use it for both their apps and games. One of these developers, Microsoft itself.
S acar Unreal Engine from the Apple SDK would be a serious blow and Microsoft games among many others would be in danger to continue being offered to users of iOS and macOS. And yes, it is also true that there are other existing engines on the market, but the options and capabilities of Unreal go much further. So much so that not only to create video games, it is even used to generate effects in series like The Mandalorian.
Therefore, to prevent iOS and macOS clients from being abandoned, Microsoft is asking that the Unreal Engine be left out of this battle . A request made officially and that certainly makes sense. If it is Fortnite who violates the rules, let that game be the one that cannot be there, but that this does not affect other tools or parts of the company behind the game. Although there may be more details behind that escape us. At the moment, until Friday there is time to reach a possible agreement. Although it seems that Apple will not tremble the pulse. So we will have to see how everything unfolds and the real consequences when it happens. Will this end up breaking the business model of these app stores? Or will they resist?
