Apple has closed a new Epic Games developer account just a few weeks after it was opened. With it, the company wanted to launch the Epic Games Store on iOS in the European Union and place Fortnite there.
Fortnite
The news about this appeared on the Epic Games blog. Judging by the published correspondence between the companies, at the end of February, Apple asked the head of Epic Games, Tim Sweeny, to give her written guarantees that this time Epic Games would fulfill its obligations and act in good faith. However, the response did not suit Apple. It allegedly boiled down to an unsubstantiated "trust us."
Apple recalled that Epic Games has grossly violated the App Store rules in the past, so it cannot trust the company. Apple also pointed out that Sweeney actively criticized the corporation's policies on social media.
Epic Games believes that Apple is "taking revenge" for the fact that the company opposed Apple's "unfair and illegal" actions. According to Epic Games, the corporation has repeatedly done this to other developers.
Epic Games said that by deleting the developer's account, Apple seriously violated the Law on Digital Stores in the European Union (DMA), which obliges the corporation to launch third—party app stores on iOS in the local market. In addition, Apple has shown that it will not tolerate serious competitors on its platform.
"No reasonable developer would want to use third-party iOS app stores if Apple reserves the right to unilaterally remove such marketplaces from the platform. Because at any moment he can lose his audience," Epic Games added.
At a press conference, Sweeney announced that Epic Games will now try to release Fortnite on iOS through the app store from another company.