The California judge in the legal skirmish between Legendary Games and Apple has actually denied Legendary’s request that Apple be required to reinstate Fortnite in the App Shop, however, did affirm that Apple can not take action against the Impressive Games developer accounts utilized to bring Unreal Engine designers access to Apple devices.
The court’s decision re-affirmed its pronouncement from late August in a court hearing where Epic Games’ lawyers sought to obtain a momentary limiting order after Apple notified the Fortnite developer that they would be kicking the business off the App Shop and terminating all of their business accounts.
The judge noted that “[p] preliminary injunctive relief is an extraordinary step seldom given,” and detailed that they were granting in part and denying in part Epic’s request, keeping in mind that “Impressive Games bears the problem in asking for such remarkable relief.”
From the filing:
Epic Games has strong arguments concerning Apple’s unique circulation through the iOS App Store, and the in-app purchase (” IAP”) system through which Apple takes 30%of particular IAP payments. Given the limited record, Legendary Games has not sufficiently dealt with Apple’s counter arguments.
This confirms that Fortnite will not go back to the App Shop prior to the trial starts; a court filing today indicated that the two business will go to trial on May 3, 2021.
Both sides intended to take their win and overlook their loss in the combined decision.
” Legendary Games is grateful that Apple will continue to be barred from retaliating versus Unreal Engine and our game development consumers as the lawsuits continues. We will continue to develop for iOS and Mac under the court’s protection, and we will pursue all avenues to end Apple’s anti-competitive behavior,” an Impressive Games spokesperson said in a statement.
” Our clients depend upon the App Store being a safe and relied on place where all designers follow the exact same set of rules,” an Apple representative informed TechCrunch in an emailed declaration. “We’re grateful the court recognized that Legendary’s actions were not in the best interests of its own clients and that any issues they may have come across were of their own making when they breached their contract. For twelve years, the App Shop has actually been an economic wonder, developing transformative service opportunities for developers large and small. We anticipate sharing this legacy of innovation and dynamism with the court next year.”