Well as we figured it would, this battle continues to get more interesting by the week. As we’ve already discussed at length, Epic took a stand with Apple (and Google to a lesser degree) in challenging their antiquated policies on the App Store.
Apple since responded by threatening to revoke all of Epic’s developer tools on IOS which would essentially damage games, engine updates, and a wealth of other aspects of gaming across Apple devices.
Just a short while ago, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer posted that they have now filed a formal statement in support of Epic. You can find that legal document here.
Today we filed a statement in support of Epic's request to keep access to the Apple SDK for its Unreal Engine. Ensuring that Epic has access to the latest Apple technology is the right thing for gamer developers & gamers https://t.co/72bLdDkvUx
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) August 23, 2020
Our Take
This is definitely heating up into being an incredibly interesting, and important, battle for the future of cross platform/ecosystem support as we move into next-generation. Times have changed and technology has evolved. In our opinion, it’s time companies like Apple update their policies to reflect the current (and future) state of the industry. There’s no reason this can’t be done while still being adequately compensated for their platform. After all, we’re talking about the two wealthiest and most successful companies in the history of the earth.