Epic Games portrays itself as modern corporate Robin Hood: Apple

San Francisco, Sep 9 (IANS) While Epic Games has blamed Apple for restricting its business on the App Store, the iPhone maker has hit back again, saying the arguments are “self-righteous” and “self-interested”, the media reported on Wednesday.

In its latest court filing, Apple said Epic has benefited from Apple’s promotion and developer tools, earning more than $600 million through the App Store.

“Although Epic portrays itself as a modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality it is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App Store,” it said in the filing.

Apple accused Epic Games of seeking a special deal before ultimately breaching its contract with the update, reports the BBC.

A US judge ruled late last month that Apple cannot delete the developer account of Epic Games that supports the open and real-time 3D creation platform Unreal Engine but can keep the Fortnite game away from the App Store for violating its policies.

Apple, however, removed the account of Epic Games from its App Store. It pulled out the Fortnite Game earlier on August 13 for adding an in-app payment system in violation of the App Store rules.

In its court filing, Apple denied that its 30 per cent commission was anti-competitive, saying it was Epic Games that violated its contract.

Meanwhile, Epic Games has made a fresh effort to get its popular Fortnite game back on App Store by filing a motion that seeks a preliminary injunction against Apple.

Epic Games said in the motion that more than 116 million registered Fortnite players have accessed the game via Apple devices.

The game has a huge following of over 350 million monthly active players, and is available on multiple platforms.

“Apple is a monopolist. It controls all app distribution on iOS. It controls all in-app payment processing for digital content on iOS. It unlawfully maintains these two monopolies by explicitly prohibiting any competitive entry in either market,” Epic Games said in the filing.

Epic Games argued it is “likely to suffer irreparable harm” in the absence of a preliminary injunction and that “the balance of harms tips sharply in Epic’s favour.”

Daily active users of the Fortnite game have plummeted more than 60 per cent on Apple iOS devices since the ban.

–IANS

na/