Automatic refund

Players who purchased a Founders or Starter Pack for Save the World within the last year should automatically receive a refund of the purchase price by early October, Epic promises. The company will also refund any cost of the game currency V-Bucks spent on Loot-Lamas under macOS, he added. Game progress and configuration will remain available on all other supported platforms – that’s PlayStation, Xbox and Windows PCs, he said.

Even the significantly more popular spin-off “Fortnite: Battle Royale”, around which the dispute between Epic and Apple actually revolves, can no longer receive further updates for macOS because of Apple’s actions, Epic explains. However, version 13.40 can still be played on Macs “at the moment”.

Apple has kicked the iOS version of Fortnite: Battle Royale out of the App Store. Those who had previously installed it ready to go can currently still continue to play it on iOS, but are excluded from the game’s new “- Season 4” and can no longer compete against players on other platforms. According to Epic, the usage figures have dropped massively because of this.

Apple also has Mac software under control

Epic considers Apple’s App Store rules anti-competitive and deliberately violated them with a Fortnite update for iOS with a secretly integrated feature: in parallel to Apple’s mandatory in-app payment interface, this allowed users to suddenly buy V-Bucks directly from Epic. Apple subsequently kicked the app out of the App Store, and Epic is filing a prepared lawsuit against Apple in return. In the meantime, Epic Games has also been kicked out of Apple’s developer program, but a subsidiary of the game manufacturer is still allowed to take care of the Unreal Engine with its own developer account for the time being. However, this is currently still being disputed in court, Apple wants to ban all Epic accounts, the Unreal Engine is a “potential threat”. Epic has brought this on itself with its violation of the rules, the iPhone company argues.

Unlike iOS, developers do not have to offer their Mac software in the Mac App Store and can make it directly available for download – like Fortnite. However, it has long been common for the programs to be signed with a developer certificate issued by Apple and verified by Apple’s notarization service, so as not to trigger any warnings from the operating system during installation. If Apple removes the developer account, the software can no longer be signed.