Epic Games claimed today Apple has unexpectedly terminated the game publisher’s developer account, which was being used to bring both the Epic Games Store and Fortnite to iOS devices such as iPhones and iPads in Europe.
Epic announced back in February its developer account had been approved, but stated that the unexpected closure of that account today came as a surprise. Epic claims it can no longer develop the Epic Games Store for iOS, but alleges this move by Apple is a “serious violation” of the European Digital Markets Act. Apple claims it has the contractual right to terminate its agreements with Epic at its sole discretion.
The DMA, which passed in December 2022 and went into effect this year, permits developers to develop and publish their own app store on iOS devices, in order to break apart the marketplace monopoly the Apple App Store had. This is not the first time an Epic developer account has been terminated by Apple. Back in August 2020, Epic added a direct payment method to Fortnite on iOS so players would not have to make purchases through the App Store, but this led to Fortnite being taken down and the Epic developer accounts on Apple getting terminated.
Apple cited Epic’s public criticism of Apple’s “proposed DMA compliance plan” as one of the reasons for the developer account termination. Specifically, Epic says CEO Tim Sweeney’s statements on X regarding Apple’s “app store and digital goods payments monopolies” led to Apple’s retaliation.
In today’s statement, Epic shared emails sent to them from Apple representatives, showing Apple believes Epic’s criticism combined with its previous rule infractions “suggests” Epic will not follow the new rules, and even that the Epic Games developer account is “part of a global effort to undermine or evade Apple’s rules.”
