Days after removing Epic Games’ popular game Fortnite from the iOS App Store, Apple has threatened it with termination of all of its developer accounts and to cut Epic from iOS and Mac development tools by August 28. Epic has filed a motion in a California court to stop Apple from doing so. Apple meanwhile, in a statement to the Verge, said that the “problem Epic has created for itself can be remedied” if Epic complies with App Store guidelines. Epic is currently in the middle of a legal battle with Apple and Google after the companies removed Fortnite from respective app stores after Epic started offering a direct payment mechanism to users, essentially bypassing in-app purchases that both the companies mandate. If Apple were to terminate all of Epic’s developer accounts, it will have far reaching consequences on not just Fortnite, but on an array of developers who use a program developed by Epic, called Unreal Engine, to develop their own apps. Unreal Engine is used in the development of not just popular games such as PUBG (a Fortnite competitor), and Mortal Kombat, but also by TV shows like The Mandalorian on Disney+. “Unreal Engine is used to develop a wide array of products including games, films, biomedical research and virtual reality. Millions of developers rely on the Unreal Engine to develop software, and hundreds of millions of consumers use that software,” Epic said in the motion. https://twitter.com/epicnewsroom/status/1295430127455596544 What Apple's retaliation means to the future of Unreal Engine: After…
