I’m starting to call this World War App Store, as it’s quickly blossoming into something beyond two megacorporations,
since a third has now taken a side.

Microsoft has come out with a public statement and court filing that they are standing by Epic as the company
moves to protest Apple’s upcoming restrictions on their developer access and tools to continue supporting Unreal on iOS.

Epic requested that they (and all developers) be able to set up a system where payment
for games/microtransactions goes through them rather than Apple’s App Store which takes an unavoidable cut.

Apple said no. Months later, Epic went ahead with it anyway, allowing Fortnite V-Bucks to be purchased straight from Epic, avoiding the cut.

Apple banned Fortnite from the App Store within hours.

Fortnite, again within hours, sued Apple for being anti-competitive, asking the court to take action against Apple’s monopolistic App Store cut.

Apple went after Epic even further, announcing that by the end of the month, they would eliminate all support for Epic and its products, which includes the Unreal Engine, which powers not just Fortnite, but loads of games and apps. Unreal isn’t “banned” but it would become difficult or impossible to support.

Epic filed an emergency petition to try and get a court to prevent Apple from doing this.

Now, today, Microsoft has filed a statement of support on Epic’s behalf about the Unreal issue, specifically, stating that it’s not just Epic games it affects, but many projects, including their own: