Apple Has Terminated Epic Games’ Developer Account for the App Store

Epic Games has revealed that Apple has terminated its developer account, which essentially blocks the company from releasing apps or games on Apple’s App Store on iOS and macOS.

The announcement comes on the heels of a recent ruling by the European Union that would force Apple to start allowing alternatives to the App Store on its devices, essentially fostering competition between Apple and other potential app and game stores. Epic Games itself has been quite vocal about wanting to bring the Epic Games Store to iPhones for some time now.

“In terminating Epic’s developer account, Apple is taking out one of the largest potential competitors to the Apple App Store,” says Epic Games in a blog post. “They are undermining our ability to be a viable competitor and they are showing other developers what happens when you try to compete with Apple or are critical of their unfair practices.”

According to Epic, Apple cited various posts on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) where Epic boss Tim Sweeny criticised Apple’s business practices. Apple has also stated that Epic is a threat to its ecosystem. Check out the X posts below.

Epic goes on to talk about the past where it has worked with Apple on releasing various apps, technologies, and even games for Apple’s hardware, including Rocket League Sideswipe, RealityScan, Postparty, Unreal Remote 2, and even contract work for Horizon Chase 2 and Wonderbox.

For its part, Apple has released its own statement (via 9to5mac) about revoking Epic’s developer account, where it says it chose to exercise its rights to terminate Epic’s accounts at its discretion in light of Epic’s “past and ongoing behaviour”.

“Epic’s egregious breach of its contractual obligations to Apple led courts to determine that Apple has the right to terminate ‘any or all of Epic Games’ wholly owned subsidiaries, affiliates, and/or other entities under Epic Games’ control at any time and at Apple’s sole discretion’,” said Apple in its statement. “In light of Epic’s past and ongoing behavior, Apple chose to exercise that right.”

Many folks on here think of me as an Apple hater. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no other group of designers and engineers on earth who can build as great products as Apple when they are directed towards that end. The woes begin when they are directed not to.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) February 26, 2024

Apple leadership faces some massive decisions in the coming weeks as the contradictions between their stated principles and the intended and actual consequences of their present policies are reckoned with: the app store monopoly, the digital goods payments monopoly, the tax, the… pic.twitter.com/mUxV5ypwcd

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) February 26, 2024