Fortnite maker Epic Games has announced that it will continue to “fight” with Apple because the iPhone maker is allegedly demanding changes to its own App Store.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said the ongoing saga surrounding the approval of Epic’s App Store app was “absurd” after Apple rejected Epic’s marketplace and initially reversed its decision after the Fortnite maker publicly criticized the decision.
However, some reports said that Apple’s decision was only temporary and that Epic would have to make changes in a future update due to concerns that some of the in-app buttons were too similar to the Apple Store design. This is not allowed and could confuse users.
The conflict between the two companies is the latest episode in a long-running dispute between them over Apple’s control of the App Store on the iPhone and iPad, which Epic Games argues is unfair and anti-competitive.
New legislation in the EU – the Digital Markets Act (DMA) – has changed the situation by introducing sweeping new rules designed to prevent the biggest tech companies from monopolising digital markets. As a result, Apple has now been forced to allow people in Europe to download iPhone apps from stores not operated by the US tech giant – a move the company had long resisted.
Epic Games stated last week that the original decision to reject its Epic Games Store app was a violation of the DMA, and disagreed with Apple’s claim that the app’s design was too similar to Apple’s.
Mr Sweeney said reports that Apple’s agreement was only temporary meant the “saga had taken an absurd turn”.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, late Friday night, he said: “Apple is now telling reporters that this approval is only temporary and is requiring us to change the buttons in the next release – which would make our store less standardized and harder to use. We will fight this.”
This was followed by another statement from Epic Games confirming that it would appeal Apple’s decision.
“Apple has told some press channels that while they have approved our current EGS (Epic Games Store) iOS app for notarization, they are still requiring Epic to change the user interface in a future release. Epic denies this,” the company said.
Apple has not commented further on the issue, but said last week that it was trying to help Epic Games get its marketplace approved and that it believed the issue was a minor one that could be easily fixed.
