Apple Restrained From Blocking Unreal Engine, But Not Fortnite

A new situation seems to have arisen in the recent lawsuit between Apple and Epic Games. Now, Apple has been permanently restrained from blocking Unreal Engine on their platforms, but will no longer be forced to bring back Fortnite on the App Store.

Essentially, the judge refused to grant Epic Games a preliminary injunction against Apple that could bring Fortnite back on the App Store. Well, at the very least, the Unreal Engine seems to be in a safer position for now.

READ: Epic and Apple’s Trial To Begin In May 2021, Here’s Everything You Need to Know.

Even though the lawsuit has received a date for a bench trial, which won’t be happening anytime soon, the case seems to develop more and more with each passing day.

Apple Is No Longer Forced To Bring Fortnite Back — Fortnite

All this happened because Epic released an update for Fortnite in August, which allowed players to bypass Apple’s Payment system and directly purchase the in-game currency.

Because of the update, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store, to which Epic filed a lawsuit, saying that the removal was a breach of trust on Apple’s part.

Though, I’m pretty sure they probably wish they hadn’t done it now.

Anyhow, even though Apple threatened to remove Epic’s Developer account from their store, meaning that Epic won’t be able to use Unreal Engine for iOS and macOS, it has been realized that the threat was also unreasonable to some extent.

“Epic Games and Apple are at liberty to litigate this action for the future of the digital frontier, but their dispute should not create havoc to bystanders. Thus, the public interest weighs overwhelmingly in favor of Unreal Engine and the Epic Affiliates.”
Judge

It is commendable, though, seeing how Epic got beaten down in this lawsuit repeatedly, even being slandered by Apple and thoroughly scolded by the judge for their actions and dishonesty, but still managing to save their flagship game-making engine while being supported by Microsoft at that!

READ: Epic Backed by Microsoft in Its Campaign Against Apple.

Regardless of all that has taken place, what direction this lawsuit will take is still yet to be seen, and it will be so until it’s bench trial on May 3rd, 2021.