Microsoft has joined the discourse regarding Epic Games’ ongoing legal battle with Apple, throwing its support behind Epic Games and the Unreal Engine.
Kevin Gammill, the general manager of gaming developer experiences for Microsoft, filed a statement expressing the company’s support for Epic Games’ temporary restraining order request against Apple.
In the filing, Microsoft explained the significance of Unreal Engine being available on Apple devices, as it is an extremely popular game engine and Microsoft’s own Forza Street makes use of it.
Should Apple not provide Epic Games access to its development kit, Unreal Engine would likely cease support for Apple products and large numbers of companies and creators would be left out. Any projects started on Unreal Engine would have to switch to something else or restart completely, should they not be outright canceled because of the additional costs.
“If Unreal Engine cannot support games for iOS or macOS, Microsoft would be required to choose between abandoning its customers and potential customers on the iOS and macOS platforms or choosing a different game engine when preparing new games,” the filing said.
Additionally, with so many games already on these platforms running on Unreal Engine, ceasing support would lead to them lacking future bug fixes and security updates, the filing argues.
Epic’s latest request for a restraining order against Apple aims to force the company to, at least temporarily, put Fortnite back on the App Store with its direct payment system letting players circumvent Apple’s own payment system–and the 30% cut Apple receives on transactions. It seems like the battle is only just beginning, and Epic Games’ Free Fortnite campaign and tournament are certainly aiming to get the public on its side. Google Play has similarly removed the game from its own store, but it is not the exclusive application store for Android.
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