Nuked Epic Games won a temporary restraining order against Apple. Effective immediately, Apple ca n’t retaliate against Epic games by terminating the company’s Apple developer accounts or restricting use of epic’s Unreal engine by developers on Apple platforms.
Fortnite was banned after epic added an in-app payment system in violation of Apple’s rules. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers decided that Apple will not be required to bring Fortnite back to the app store.
‘Epic games has not yet demonstrated irreparable harm,’ says the court.’the current predicament appears of its own making,’ he adds.
Apple’has chosen to act severely’ by threatening the Unreal engine. This is because it affects both developers, as well as epic’s reputation. But Rogers argued that status quo is why she’s ruling that Apple ca n’t cut off access to the engine right now.
‘Epic games and Apple are at liberty to litigate against each other, but their dispute should not create havoc to bystanders’.
Originally, epic claimed Apple had intended to cut off epic’s developer accounts this Friday, August 28th. Originally,, epic said Apple had planned to slash off its developer accounts.
Writer agrees with epic that there is’potential significant damage to both the Unreal Engine platform itself, and to the gaming industry generally’. Apple would have a hard time arguing that epic wo n’t be harmed if Unreal Engine developers abandon their projects because epic can no longer support them on Apple platforms.
Judge Rogers had already indicated that she was more swayed by the apparent threat to the Unreal engine. She said at the opening of the hearing,’but I am not inclined to grant relief with respect to the UN real engine’.
The injunction would determine whether Apple can take action against Fortnite, the Unreal engine, or various epic products over the course of the trial trial. The two parties are expected to file their arguments in the coming weeks, with a full hearing on the injunction scheduled for September 28th.
