Epic Games CEO vows to battle Apple over 'absurd' app store demands

The dispute between Apple and Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, continues to simmer. Epic has long contested Apple's revenue-sharing policies on the App Store. Despite losing its antitrust lawsuit against Apple last year, Epic's grievances were echoed in a separate lawsuit filed in March by the Department of Justice and 17 state attorneys general.

In Europe, the Digital Markets Act appeared to grant Epic an opening to launch its own Epic Games Store on iOS and to reintroduce Fortnite with reduced commissions to Apple. However, Apple twice rejected the Games store, citing similarities to its App Store, particularly concerning the “install” and “in-app purchase” buttons as reported by the TechCrunch, the Technology news website.

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On Friday, Epic publicly criticized Apple's "arbitrary, obstructive" rejections and reported its concerns to European regulators. Following this, Apple approved the games store but insisted that Epic make changes in a future update.

The conflict remains unresolved. Epic subsequently announced it was "disputing" Apple, with founder and CEO Tim Sweeney describing the situation as "absurd."

“Apple is now telling reporters that this approval is temporary and are demanding we change the buttons in the next version – which would make our store less standard and harder to use,” Sweeney stated. “We’ll fight this.”

The standoff suggests that Epic is unwilling to make further changes to its game store, and the tech community watches closely to see how Apple will respond.