Epic Games has intensified its battle against Apple over the launch of its own game store on iOS. In a series of tweets, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, wrote, “Apple’s DMA saga has taken a turn towards the absurd. Apple is now telling reporters that this approval is temporary and they are demanding we change the buttons in the next version, which would make our store less standard and harder to use. We’ll fight this.”
Epic has been fighting Apple for years over the company’s revenue-sharing requirements in the App Store. While Epic’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple was defeated last year, many of its criticisms were echoed in a different lawsuit filed against Apple in March by the Department of Justice and 17 state attorneys general.
The new Digital Markets Act in Europe allowed Epic to launch its own Epic Games Store on iOS and to bring Fortnite back to the platform with reduced commissions to Apple. However, Apple supposedly rejected the game store twice over elements it said were too similar to its own App Store, particularly the “install” and “in-app purchase” buttons.
Once Epic went public on Friday with its complaints about Apple’s “arbitrary, obstructive” rejections and said it reported its concerns to European regulators, Apple approved the game store but said Epic would still need to make changes in a future update.
It looks like Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, will resist making further changes to its game store. “We are using the same ‘Install’ and ‘In-app purchases’ naming conventions that are used across popular app stores on multiple platforms and are following standard conventions for buttons in iOS apps,” Epic said in a series of posts on X.
“Apple’s rejection is arbitrary, obstructive, and in violation of the DMA (Digital Markets Act), and we’ve shared our concerns with the European Commission,” it said. Apple stated it was working with Epic to resolve the issue and launch its games marketplace.
Epic and Apple have been embroiled in a legal battle since 2020 when the gaming firm alleged that Apple’s practice of charging up to 30 percent commissions on in-app payments on its iPhone Operating System (iOS) devices violated U.S. antitrust rules. Early this year, Apple proposed changes to its App Store policies to comply with certain directives of the DMA that went into force in March.