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Apple has informed Epic Games that it will withdraw developer access and tools for the ‘Fortnite’ maker later this month. The game maker has filed an injunction motion on Monday against Apple.
In a Twitter post , Epic Games said, “Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store and has informed Epic that on Friday, August 28 Apple will terminate all our developer accounts and cut Epic off from iOS and Mac development tools. We are asking the court to stop this retaliation.”
Fortnite was removed from App Store after Epic Games introduced an option for the players to make in-app purchases directly, by-passing Apple’s payment system, and violating its App Store policy.
“The problem Epic has created for itself is one that can easily be remedied if they submit an update of their app that reverts it to comply with the guidelines they agreed to and which apply to all developers,” Apple said in a statement to TechCrunch .
“We won’t make an exception for Epic because we don’t think it’s right to put their business interests ahead of the guidelines that protect our customers,” it added.
Apple also offers developers software development kits (SDKs), which help in building apps and games on its platform, in combination with Apple’s developer tool – Xcode, which includes all the frameworks, compilers, debuggers, and other tools developers need to build apps on its platform.
Epic says in the absence of the developer software and tools, it will not be able to create new versions of Unreal Engine for use on both iOS and macOS. The Unreal Engine toolkit has been installed in about half a million Mac computers. It is used by developers to develop their games and other software, and has been used to develop Fortnite as well.
