Epic vs. Apple Round 2: CEO Vows to Fight “Absurd” App Store Demands

The battle between tech giants Apple and Epic Games, the latter being known for creating the popular game Fortnite, shows no signs of abating.

Epic has long contested Apple’s fees and restrictions within the App Store. Although their antitrust lawsuit against Apple was unsuccessful last year, their concerns resonated with the US Department of Justice and 17 state attorneys general, who filed a separate suit against Apple in March.

A glimmer of hope emerged in Europe earlier this year. The new Digital Markets Act potentially allowed Epic to launch its own game store on Apple devices and bring Fortnite back with a smaller cut going to Apple. However, Apple reportedly rejected the game store twice, citing similarities to its own App Store, specifically the “install” and “in-app purchase” buttons.

Faced with Epic’s public criticism of their “unreasonable” rejections and reports to European regulators, Apple eventually approved the game store. But the saga continues, as Apple insists Epic will need to make further changes in a future update.

Further escalating the conflict, Epic recently announced they are “disputing” Apple’s recent App Store changes. Epic’s CEO, Tim Sweeney, went so far as to say the situation has become “absurd,” hinting at further legal action.

Here is what he said:

Apple is now telling reporters that this approval is temporary and 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 Games appears ready to dig in its heels against Apple’s latest App Store demands. It remains to be seen if they’ll budge, and how Apple will react.