On August 28, 2020 Apple has implemented the previously announced threat by removing the Epic Games account and all games of the company from the App Store. The apps Fortnite, Infinity Blade, Tyrian and Battle Breakers were removed from the App Store. Now there are no applications in the developer account (link to an empty Epic Games account). The App Store gives out an error when any attempt is made to access a page of Epic Games or one of its applications via a direct link. Also, remote games are not available in the App Store search.
At present, Epic Games can no longer be downloaded to iOS devices, even if they were previously available to the user in the “Purchases” menu. Earlier it was possible to install the latest version of Fortnite, if the application was assigned to the user account.
Epic Games has opened a special portal FreeFortnite, where it explains to users its version of current events against Apple. Earlier there was a warning that iOS users will not be available 14 season Fortnite (4 season 2 chapters), which will open on August 27. Thus, many players with iOS devices have lost access to the cross-platform multiplayer with PC, Android and consoles. Epic Games explained that although the version of Fortnite for Mac is not distributed through the App Store, but through its own lounge, but Epic still need a developer account to sign the game as a trusted application for the system. In fact, iOS and MacOS gamers are stuck on the old Fortnite version and can only play between two platforms. And these game users can not make in-game purchases through Apple Pay.
“It’s a pity that we had to remove the Epic Games account from the App Store. We worked with the Epic Games team for many years on their releases. The court recommended that Epic stick to the rules of the App Store at the time of the case - the rules that Epic has followed over the past decade, until it created this situation. Epic has refused. Instead, she constantly sent to the consideration of Fortnite updates that violate the rules of the App Store. This is unfair to the other developers in the App Store and puts customers in an uncomfortable position. We hope to return to cooperation in the future, but unfortunately, this is not possible now,” said Apple.
Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games, explained that Apple is a sly, saying that the developers spammed the App Store with Fortnite updates. Epic has recently introduced to Apple only three builds of Fortnite: two updates with bug fixes and an update with the new season.
It is noteworthy that in anticipation of removing Epic Games account from the App Store, Apple began to promote another game in the style of royal battle - PUBG Mobile, which uses the engine Unreal Engine from Epic Games. The Unreal Engine developer’s account in the App Store is not removed, and he has access to all Apple tools.