Xbox Executive Kevin Gammill’s ‘Declaration of Support’ for Epic Is Specifically About Unreal Engine, not Fortnite

Regarding the Unreal Engine part of the Epic v. Apple legal battle, Microsoft Xbox executive Kevin Gammill filed a declaration for Epic over the weekend. I’m a little surprised Microsoft waded into this at all, but read Gammill’s declaration — it’s only three pages and very cogent. All his declaration states is that Apple revoking Epic’s license to develop Unreal Engine for Apple platforms would be bad for Epic and bad for all games that use Unreal Engine to target iOS or MacOS. Basically: duh. It doesn’t even contain the terms “Fortnite” or “App Store”.

This doesn’t contradict my prediction that you won’t see Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo file amicus briefs on Epic’s behalf about the App Store’s control over software and mandatory use of Apple’s payment system. If Apple hadn’t threatened to revoke the developer program license for Unreal Engine, Microsoft wouldn’t have piped in here.

★ Monday, 24 August 2020