This would essentially make the Unreal Engine a dead-end technology on the iPhone and Mac, according to Epic. On Monday, Epic said that Apple threatened not only to remove Fortnite, but to disable the company's developer accounts entirely. Epic also kicked off a marketing campaign with a 30-second spot encouraging Fortnite gamers to 'fight back' against Apple. Apple is already undergoing scrutiny from Congress over its control of the App Store, which is the only easy way for users to install software on the iPhone and iPad. But Epic Games was prepared, and immediately filed a lawsuit accusing Apple of anti-competitive behavior.
That violates Apple's App Store policies, so Apple removed Fortnite within hours. The dispute started last Friday when Epic updated Fortnite so users could buy digital character outfits and other items directly with a credit card. Other game-makers license it from Epic so they don't have to re-build the same functions from scratch, and it's used in many popular games, although it's more popular on consoles and PCs than for mobile games.
Unreal is a long-standing set of technologies for displaying 3D graphics. If Apple disables Epic's developer account, then the company won't be able to maintain the Unreal Engine for iPhones and other Apple computers.
