The makers of the popular video game Fortnite have a big supporter in their corner as they go to battle against Apple - Microsoft.
A few weeks ago, Epic Games introduced Epic Direct payments, a direct-payment plan for Apple's iOS and Google Play that bypasses the App Store.
Apple said the service violated its guidelines, so they removed the game from the App Store.
Epic, in return, took legal action.
On Sunday, Microsoft issued a statement, which was tweeted out by Xbox boss Phil Spencer, that explained they were backing up Epic in their court battle because "Apple’s discontinuation of Epic’s ability to develop and support Unreal Engine for iOS or macOS will harm game creators and gamers."
Today we filed a statement in support of Epic's request to keep access to the Apple SDK for its Unreal Engine. Ensuring that Epic has access to the latest Apple technology is the right thing for gamer developers & gamers https://t.co/72bLdDkvUx
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) August 23, 2020
"Denying Epic access to Apple’s SDK and other development tools will prevent Epic from supporting Unreal Engine on iOS and macOS, and will place Unreal Engine and those game creators that have built, are building and may build games on it at a substantial disadvantage," said Microsoft's general manager for gaming developer experiences Kevin Gammill.
