Apple To Withdraw User ID Logins For Fortnite Gamers

Epic Games has issued an urgent warning for Fortnite and other Epic games players who use their Apple ID to sign in.

According to Epic as soon as tomorrow (Friday 11 September), Apple will no longer allow users to sign into Epic Games accounts using ‘Sign In with Apple’.

Epic last week revealed that usage of Fortnite on iOS platforms had plummeted by more than 60 percent since Apple remove the game off the App Store.

Apple IDs

“Apple will no longer allow users to sign into Epic Games accounts using ‘Sign In with Apple’ as soon as September 11, 2020. If you used “Sign In with Apple”, please make sure your email and password are up to date,” tweeted Epic Games.

According to Epic, in order to ensure ‘Sign In with Apple’ users continue to have access to their account, they will need to log into the ‘General Settings’ page at epicgames.com and update their account with their current email address and a new password.

And if users don’t do this before Friday’s cut-off, Epic ‘may be able to recover your account manually,’ but they will need to contact the company directly to begin that process.

Instructions on how to do this are available here.

Legal battle

The clash between Apple and Epic Games began when the latter issued an update for Fortnite that allowed players to purchase in-game currency directly from Epic, bypassing Apple and Google’s payment systems and the 30 percent commission they charge.

Apple and Google then retaliated and removed Fortnite from their respective App Stores, prompting Epic to file a lawsuit against Apple.

In addition to removing Fortnite, Apple also said it would terminate all of Epic Games’ developer accounts and cut it off from its development tools starting 28 August.

That was going to be a problem for Epic, because despite developing its own gaming titles, it also makes tools for other game developers such as the Unreal Engine.

Epic then filed an emergency injunction to stop Apple from revoking iOS and macOS support for its Unreal Engine.

Late last month a US court granted part of the injunction and stopped Apple from removing its Unreal Engine from the Apple developer program.

However, the Judge also ruled that Apple won’t be required to make Fortnite available on its App Store.

But Epic Games was not happy, and late last week it filed a fresh legal challenge in the US District Court of Northern California seeking another preliminary injunction against Apple to get it to restore the game to the App Store.

But Apple this week had enough and launched a counter lawsuit against the creator of Fortnite.

In its lawsuit, Apple accused Epic Games of stealing the 30 percent commissions the iPhone maker takes from app developers.

UPDATE: Apple has just announced that it has given Epic Game users an “indefinite extension” to log into the Fortnite game using an Apple sign-in system.