Why Epic can’t afford to lose the Unreal Engine in its fight with Apple | Hacker News Reader

Why Epic can’t afford to lose the Unreal Engine in its fight with Apple

theverge.com

26 pointsjhatax11 comments

If Apple can afford losing the fight and Epic can’t, they’ve already lost. Having said that, I’m not really sure that the points in TFA are really solid, nor I see the impact of losing access to their developer account as stated, after all the framework binaries for UE don’t have to be signed. If anybody can elaborate on why losing access to the developer account is such a big deal, I would love to hear about it.

Without the developer account Epic loses access to the Apple developer toolchain. While it's theoretically possible that Epic could continue developing UE for Apple platforms without a developer account, it would be extremely difficult. If they even tried then Apple could just ban them from e.g. reading the documentation, so there's no reason to attempt it. Apple's intention by banning the developer account is crystal clear, they don't want apps using UE4 on Apple platforms. It may sound insane but that is the implication of it.

> Without the developer account Epic loses access to the Apple developer toolchain. While it's theoretically possible that Epic could continue developing UE for Apple platforms without a developer account, it would be extremely difficult.

Which parts? I wish someone would be concrete about this. I compile code on macs using clang all the time, and I distribute them to other machines, and I don't have a developer account.

I know my little things aren't the same as UE. But be concrete. What won't they be able to do? Will XCode not build for them? Is it possible Epic has gotten themselves into a place where UE's very existence depends on a particular IDE? Or is it more about signing and distribution? Why can't they just put an executable up on their website for developers to download?

This question comes up every time this discussion does... so someone please settle it by being specific!

I think even if Epic loses the case, Apple will continue to allow the use of Unreal engine. It’s also in their interest to do so.

They would allow Fortnite back too.

It's almost as though these proprietary walled-gardens are a bad idea.

I believe Stallman said "digital handcuffs."

I don't know. For me Apple has lost major brownie points here. I will be looking for option of a non-iPhone when next time I switch. It remains to be seen how this hits Apple regardless of the outcome, but I think generally Epic will be in a tight spot, should they lose the trial... Which makes it a battle of survival for Epic and a minor bump on the road for Apple. And unequal court case to be sure.

If Apple kills unreal it will start a war that FB, MS, G etc. won't be able to ignore.

New iOS changes are going to kill FB display ads so it's already getting hot.

Biden may be much more open to regulatory intervention than current regime.

If epic wins companies that make gaming consoles will immediately be subject to the same ruling, so it will be interesting to see which companies provide support to which sides.

That is Epic's goal the console fans have "consoles are different" blinders on

Reply on news.ycombinator.com