Apple Bans Epic and the Sony Car

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On March 6th Apple banned Epic Games from the iOS store. This meant apps produced by Epic such as Rocket League, Post Party, Reality Scan and more had the possibility of being removed from the store. This decision was reversed 2 days late.

In case you do not know, Epic Games has been in a legal battle with Apple for the past 3 years. To briefly summarize, Epic argues that Apple has created a monopoly through their iOS appstore since it is the only way developers can distribute apps and Apple takes a 30% cut on all in-app purchases. This is different from the PC ecosystem, which has multiple competing appstores such as the Epic Games or Microsoft Store. Epic updated Fortnite to allow users the ability to shop without going through the appstore, resulting in Apple banning Fortnite and kicking off this legal battle.

Now 3 years later, in the United States Epic has mostly lost.

But in the European Union Epic has achieved a sweeping victory with the passing of the Digital Markets Act. This requires digital gatekeepers to allow third party app stores and services. This is a win for developers who can create new apps with in-app purchases that do not have to pay an Apple fee. With the passing of this law Epic Games Sweden started working on an Epic Games Store for iOS that contains Fortnite. In the near future we will see Fortnite available for iPhones in Europe and not in the United States.

In retaliation, Apple removed Epic Games as a developer killing their chance at creating a new marketplace. Strangely, as part of their reasoning they cited this tweet made by Tim Sweeney CEO of Epic Games. Immediately the EU opened an investigation to see if Apple violated the new law. After much scrutiny Apple walked back their judgment and reinstated Epic Games as a developer.

For two days it looked like a tweet that mildly criticized Apple could be a reason for a billion dollar app like Fortnite being banned (again). Luckily, especially for us Unreal developers, that was not the case and now Europe has a better developer ecosystem for iOS than the US.

Sony and Honda’s concept car runs off of Unreal Engine for their user interface! This is not a surprise since Sony owns a large chunk of Epic Games and recently the number of cars running on Unreal has been growing. This short went viral of Marques Brownlees showing off the new Unreal powered display of the Lotus SUV. Volvo has also announced that their next generation of cars will be powered by Unreal. If you want to learn more about car visualization there are two excellent sample projects you can download now, Car Configurator and Automotive Materials.

It looks like a car for gamers or fans of Playstation. The car comes with remote play to allow the driver to access their PS5, it can be driven with a PS5 controller, you can drive the car right now in Gran Turismo and it has Fortnite and Spiderman themed wallpapers. In the announcement, they also showcased the car being driven autonomously within the Matrix City Sample Project. It is expected to release 2026. Next time someone asks what engine is in your car, say Unreal!

That’s it! Until next time,

Zach Hunter