Oliver Haslam·

Judge Upholds Fortnite App Store Ban, Prevents Ban On Unreal Engine Development

After a hearing involving Apple and Epic yesterday, the judge has now shared her ruling. Epic had initially asked for an order that would have prevented Apple from blocking Fortnite from being made available via the App Store as well as undoing a ban on its developer account.

As for the outcome, both Apple and Epic came away with a win and a loss each.

Fortnite isn’t being brought back to the App Store after Apple’s decision to remove it was upheld by the judge. That said, Epic will continue to develop Unreal Engine after the judge ruled that it shouldn’t see its developer account banned.

That’s an important point for not only Epic but for the countless developers who work on apps for iOS and macOS and need Unreal Engine to make them work.

Part of Epic’s argument was that the developer account used to work on Unreal Engine isn’t owned by the same account as the one that works on Fortnite.

This is just a preliminary situation, however. There’s a larger lawsuit incoming here and before that happens Epic has another request for an injunction so it can get Fortnite back onto the App Store. That’s now the important one, especially for Fortnite gamers. It’s set to take place at the end of September.

However, it’s important to remember that as of now Fortnite is not available on the App Store and no updates will be available. Epic can fix that by removing the rule-breaking in-app purchases from the game – whether it will, we’ll see.

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