Amidst the ongoing lawsuit building between Fortnite’s developer Epic and Apple’s App Store, Microsoft has now publicly filed to support Epic’s lawsuit. After their own trouble with bringing xCloud and Game Pass to iOS, Microsoft is also becoming quite upset with Apple’s rulings. Citing crucial Unreal Engine tools that would be inaccessible to developers if Apple moves forward with removing Unreal from their platforms. This development arrives at the situation amidst a somewhat uncertain time, Apple only recently filed against Epic in response to the original lawsuit. Stating that Epic is seeking to have a special deal with Apple only, Tim Sweeney then countered publicly sharing email conversations explicitly falsifying this claim. To support Epic’s updated suit, Phil Spencer tweeted his thoughts and shared the new motion of support.
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
In the Microsoft statement, Kevin Gammill, the general manager of Microsoft who oversees many creators from audio engineers to game producers. Gammill opens with a strong fact which “Developing a game using different game engines for different platforms may be prohibitively expensive and difficult. In any event, it is not as cost-effective as using a game engine that supports different platforms.” Placing unnecessary strain on an already mountainous task for indie developers will hurt the iOS market substantially. This compounded with the declining market in paid titles that would become much more difficult to make if they continue the separation with Epic.
The mobile gaming market is worth billions of dollars now, with Apple’s app store making up over half of the market. Losing Unreal Engine would force developers out. Gammill understands the gravity in this change. He continues by expressing the following:
Microsoft would be required to choose between abandoning its customers and potential customers on the iOS and macOS platforms or choosing a different game engine when preparing to develop new games.”
Not only would this irreversibly change titles already on the App Store, the support of studios even bigger than Microsoft will also inevitably take their project elsewhere. Unreal’s crucial history with Apple developers is even more clear in their subscription service. Such removal would cause many titles to never see future updates or many in development to pause or halt completely.
With all the new ongoing information about Epic’s case against Apple, their monetization practices are less than stellar. Practically forcing WordPress to enable in-app purchases is downright predatory behavior and uncomfortable for all parties involved. While they have retracted their intention to have the app monetized, it paints the reality developers face when trying to provide a service through Apple’s store. As Epic Games continue to reach across the aisle to host their store on iOS, we can only hope Apple reconsiders the fate of Unreal on their platforms.
