Apple has terminated Epic Games’ App Store account, slaying ‘Fortnite’ (for now)

After removing Fortnite from its App Store over an alternate billing system that violated its policies, Apple has officially terminated the Epic Games account.

Two weeks ago, Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite and Infinity Blade, uploaded an updated version of Fortnite to the Apple App Store and Google Play. That version featured an alternate billing system that circumnavigated the app stores, allowing for in-app purchases directly through Epic’s payment system.

Apple responded to that rule violation by pulling the game, and Epic then sued Apple, alleging antitrust law violations.

Following that lawsuit, Apple said it would terminate Epic’s account, and on Friday, it did. “The court recommended that Epic comply with the App Store guidelines while their case moves forward, guidelines they’ve followed for the past decade until they created this situation. Epic has refused,” Apple said in a statement, according to The Verge. “Instead they repeatedly submit Fortnite updates designed to violate the guidelines of the App Store. This is not fair to all other developers on the App Store and is putting customers in the middle of their fight. We hope that we can work together again in the future, but unfortunately that is not possible today.”

This means Epic won’t be allowed to submit any apps or even updates to the Apple App Store through its Epic Games developer account, and App Store users won’t be able to download (or re-download, if they previously purchased and then deleted) any of those games.

But the battle between the two isn’t quite over. Although Apple won the right to boot Epic Games in the most recent hearing, the next one, according to Gizmodo, is scheduled for September 29, 2020.