Court cases like this can take years, and antitrust investigations can take even longer.

Fortnite was unceremoniously pulled from the App Store, and less than an hour later, Epic Games launched a lawsuit that it very obviously had waiting in the wings.

If this smells like a setup on Epics part, thats of course because it was, and in fact new details have emerged showing that Epic had actually been poking at Apple behind the scenes for several weeks prior in preparation for this move.

While its clear that Epic was expecting Apples first response, its less certain whether it really expected Apple to wield the much more thermonuclear option of terminating its relationship with Epic entirely, which would also hamper further development on the Unreal Engine that serves as the foundation for games built by many other developers.

Details here: Epic Games Newsroom (EpicNewsroom) August 17, 2020 Following that announcement, Epic quickly filed a request with the courts for an injunction against Apple, not only asking that the courts stay Apples hand on the developer agreement termination, but going a big step further by actually asking the courts to force Apple to reinstate Fortnite into the App Store as-is, with Epics in-app purchasing system still in place.

Of course such a bold request demands an equally bold and proportional response, and in its court filing opposing Epics motion, Apple pulled absolutely no punches in expressing exactly what its take is on Epics behaviour.

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Epics agreements with Apple expressly spell out that if an app developer violates the rules of the App Store or the license for development toolsboth of which apply and are enforced equally to all developers large and smallApple will stop working with that developer Developers who work to deceive Apple, as Epic has done here, are terminated.

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In his declaration, Schiller explains the business model for the App Store, and emphasizes that it has remained unchanged since it launched in 2008: if you charge for software purchased through the App Store, Apple takes a percentage of the charge as commission.

On the flip side, Schiller says, Apples commision enables it to get a return on the substantial investments it has made in the App Store, and to fund future innovation.

He also notes that Epic renewed its Developer Program License Agreement on June 30, 2020, at which point it would have had to assent to agree to the terms of the agreement terms which it has now explicitly violated as a result of its actions regarding Fortnite.

Mr. Sweeney acknowledged that Epic could not implement its proposal unless the agreements between Epic and Apple were modified.

Apple spelled this out to Sweeney in detail in a formal six-page letter explaining why it could not give Epic preferential treatment over all other developers.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, in an email to the Apple Executive Team.

Today, Epic is launching Epic direct payments in Fortnite on iOS, offering customers the choice of paying in-app through Epic direct payments or through Apple payments, and passing on the savings of Epic direct payments to customers in the form of lower prices.

We choose to follow this path in the firm belief that history and law are on our side.

Smartphones are essential computing devices that people use to live their lives and conduct their business.

Epics conduct is akin to a manufacturer walking into a retail store and asking shoppers to pay the manufacturer directly for their products, leaving the store itself with nothing for its efforts.

One of the first marquee games released for the iPhone platform back in 2010 was Epics Infinity Blade, which debuted at an iPod event in the fall of 2010, back when it was still known simply as Project Sword, and when Steve Jobs was still very much at Apples helm.

The Fortnite app remains functional for millions of iPhone and iPad users.

Epic has been and is acting in violation of its agreements with Apple, selling to users in our App Store without paying Apple the commission it agreed to pay, and circumventing our app review process.

And, critically, if Epics misconduct is permitted, it would demonstrate to all developers that they can simply disregard the commitments they made in their contracts with Apple.

In fact, the very idea that the two are tied together could even be called into question by the time this whole thing is over.

Sweeney has already clearly stated that hes prepared to wage this particular war for years, and clearly Apple isnt about to back down anytime soon either, since as far as its concerned the entire future of the App Store ecosystem is at stake here.

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