The Epic Games and Apple drama seems to be heating up as time goes on. Today, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, ruled that Fortnite was not allowed to return to the App Store.
The court’s decision considered that Apple had the right to remove the game title from its store. However, Apple may not remove every Epic Games title from the market. So, any current mobile game that relies on the Unreal Engine will be reinstated today.
In response to this ruling, Apple stated that the Epic Games issue could only be resolved by the two companies.
Because in truth, the dispute between Apple and Epic Games started after Epic chose to implement its own payment system in Fortnite. Shortly after, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store.
Although many gamers disagree about the removal, what Epic does is clearly violates the App Store guidelines set by Apple.
As for Epic, although this was not the result they wanted, the company managed to get a small win in court. A District Judge has rejected Apple’s restraining order for any titles that use Epic Games technology.
This ruling is mostly related to other mobile games that use the Unreal Engine. While discussing this in court yesterday, the Judge said “Apple has chosen to act tough,“Because this restraining order will harm other developers who have nothing to do with this legal battle.
September 28 is the next date in this case. Epic Games has submitted a request for preliminary injunction and the District Judge has set this date for a hearing on the matter.
