Apple ordered to not block Epic’s Unreal Engine, Fortnite to stay off App Store

dbetteridge wrote: post #2

https://9to5mac.com/2020/08/24/fortnite-ban-unreal-engine-ap... Non techcrunch link (as I can't access those with ublock/cookie wall blocker)

https://web.archive.org/web/20200825071539/https://techcrunc...

Re: Apple ordered to not block Epic’s Unreal Engine, Fortnite to stay off App Store

#5

Post by causality0 » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 8:50 AM UTC

A victory for sanity. Apple threatening developmental licenses and anyone who used the Unreal Engine was nothing short of mafia-esque, and just as obviously Fortnite being restored to the app store is a matter for Epic's lawsuit against apple.

Re: Apple ordered to not block Epic’s Unreal Engine, Fortnite to stay off App Store

#6

Post by philliphaydon » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 9:17 AM UTC

causality0 wrote: post #5

A victory for sanity. Apple threatening developmental licenses and anyone who used the Unreal Engine was nothing short of mafia-esque, and just as obviously Fortnite being restored to the app store is a matter for Epic's lawsuit against apple.

Huh, Apple said it would disable Epic's developer accounts? They never threatened anyone using Unreal Engine, and I don't believe they specified UE Developer accounts.

We can only speculate that UE Developer accounts would have been terminated as we don't really know if Apple was going to terminate those too as they belong to a separate company according to the court documents.

Re: Apple ordered to not block Epic’s Unreal Engine, Fortnite to stay off App Store

#7

Post by jamesdhutton » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 9:29 AM UTC

Can anyone explain exactly how Apple "blocks" Unreal Engine? I was under the impression that it's a 3rd-party library, available directly from Epic, that anybody is free to link their game to. So I'm struggling to understand the mechanism by which Apple blocks it. Any clarity on this would be appreciated.

Re: Apple ordered to not block Epic’s Unreal Engine, Fortnite to stay off App Store

#8

Post by compsciphd » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 9:32 AM UTC

jamesdhutton wrote: post #7

Can anyone explain exactly how Apple "blocks" Unreal Engine? I was under the impression that it's a 3rd-party library, available directly from Epic, that anybody is free to link their game to. So I'm struggling to understand the mechanism by which Apple blocks it. Any clarity on this would be appreciated.

they revoked Epic's developer account. if Epic is restricted from getting the tools needed to further develop Unreal Engine, that effectively prevents Epic from doing further development on it.

Re: Apple ordered to not block Epic’s Unreal Engine, Fortnite to stay off App Store

#9

Post by asutekku » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 9:33 AM UTC

causality0 wrote: post #5

A victory for sanity. Apple threatening developmental licenses and anyone who used the Unreal Engine was nothing short of mafia-esque, and just as obviously Fortnite being restored to the app store is a matter for Epic's lawsuit against apple.

This is arguably false. The only license that would’ve been withdrawn was Epic’s.

Not a single other developer using UE was targeted directly by Apple.

Re: Apple ordered to not block Epic’s Unreal Engine, Fortnite to stay off App Store

#10

Post by daveoc64 » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 9:33 AM UTC

jamesdhutton wrote: post #7

Can anyone explain exactly how Apple "blocks" Unreal Engine? I was under the impression that it's a 3rd-party library, available directly from Epic, that anybody is free to link their game to. So I'm struggling to understand the mechanism by which Apple blocks it. Any clarity on this would be appreciated.

Epic needs access to Apple's developer tools and documentation to continue developing the Unreal Engine software and libraries for macOS and iOS.

Without access to those things, it would be difficult for Epic to produce new versions of the Unreal Engine, and game developers wouldn't want to use it any more.