Microsoft has thrown its support behind Epic Games, as it continues its war against Apple in the courtrooms of America over its video game publishing system. Xboss Phil Spencer took to Twitter to make a statement, which come hot on the heels of Apple threatening to kill off Epic’s dev access to iOS and Mac:
In a further statement linked through the tweet, Microsoft revealed more of its public support for Epic Games and condemnation for Apple’s response. Here’s a snippet of it:
Epic Games’ Unreal Engine is critical technology for numerous game creators including Microsoft. As a result, Epic’s Unreal Engine is one of the most popular third-party game engines available to game creators, and in Microsoft’s view there are very few other options available for creators to license with as many features and as much functionality as Unreal Engine across multiple platforms, including iOS.
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. Because iOS is a large and growing market for games, Apple’s discontinuation of Unreal Engine’s ability to support iOS will be a material disadvantage for the Unreal Engine in future decisions by Microsoft and other game creators as to the choice of an engine for new games.
Apple’s discontinuation of Epic’s ability to develop and support Unreal Engine for iOS or macOS will harm game creators and gamers.
Microsoft’s got a reason to be miffed at Apple, as their cloud gaming service Project xCloud was deemed a no-go on iOS devices, likely due to the impact that it could have on Apple’s Arcade offerings. Apple also made certain that Google Stadia would not be supported on their hardware, which was devastating news to the 17 people invested in that platform.
Fiercely protective of their market share, Epic’s recent attack has accused Apple of double standards and stifling competition, whereas other critics have pointed a finger at Epic for merely being in business for themselves as they pursue a larger slice of the profits pie. Each side is coming off the worst for wear in the eyes of the public, and all I know is that it’s way too early in the decade for Cyberpunk’s infamous Corporate Wars to be kicking off.
Last Updated: August 24, 2020
Krabby Paddy
August 24, 2020 at 10:56
Supporting either side in this is just stating which corporate father you bow down to.
Gavin Mannion
August 24, 2020 at 10:26
Apple’s retaliation of removing Unreal Engine SDK access is petty but overall I don’t support Epic in this.
They are using the iOS platform and so they need to pay the piper. It’s just corporate greed from both sides
overflow111
August 24, 2020 at 15:18
It’s not like you sell your product on Amazon for some fee to better visibility.
Without Amazon you can still sell your product in your own webshop and you’re still able to reach the whole world with advertising on your own. That’s what we call free market. There are some giants whose have the majority of the market share but they’re not exclusive.
Unlike the mobile market where if you don’t accept Apple’s policy than you will lose the half of the US market asn an instant. That’s a big problem and an enormous power without any regulation.
If you want to enter to the mobile market and want to reach the users you have no other choice but obey these two giants.
I hope Epic win and they can bring a change to the mobile market.
Gavin Mannion
August 24, 2020 at 16:18
Yeah it is a point but at the same time Apple and Google made those markets, you are more than welcome to make your own and compete so that is exactly what a free market is.
I personally support Google and Apple being broken up now that they have a duopoly but that’s very much against the free market idea.
I also support Epic being broken into a game development company (Unreal Engine) and a game publishing company.
overflow111
August 24, 2020 at 20:30
When a platform is new there are some competing OS but the winners take it all and forever. After the “critical mass” of applications there’s no more chance for competing OS. No matter how good it is the users wont use it because there’s no applications on it and devs wont port their apps because there’re no users. It’s extremly hard to resolve this deadlock if not impossible. That’s why Windows rules the PC segment for long years and that’s why even Microsoft couldnt join to the mobile market because we reached that point when nobody can. If we accept this statement than it’s obvious that we should regulate and free the mobile market.
HairyEwok
August 25, 2020 at 14:17
The enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of deal going on here.