Epic judge will protect Unreal Engine – but not Fortnite

Epic Games just won a temporary restraining order against Apple - at least in part. Effective immediately, Apple can't retaliate against the company by terminating the developer account used to support the company's Unreal Engine. But in the same ruling, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers decided that Apple will not be required to bring Fortnite - which it had banned after Epic added an in-app payment system in violation of Apple's rules - back to the App Store.

I think this is a fair order. Epic willingly and purposefully broke the agreement it entered into with Apple to elicit a response and strengthen their lawsuit case, and Apple is well within its right to remove Fortnite as a result. However, for Apple to then also block and remove everything else related to Epic is clearly retaliatory and petty, and the judge seemed to have seen right through Apple (and Epic's) nonsense.

Of course, this is technically not part of the actual lawsuit filed by Epic that started all of this - these are the opening salvos in what will be a long, drawn-out fight.