Epic Games won a reprieve for its Unreal Engine gaming platform against Apple plans to block access to developer accounts on iOS and macOS.

A US district court judge yesterday (24 August) ruled against Apple’s plan to terminate Epic Games’s Unreal Engine developer tool kit from 28 August, citing potentially significant damage to the platform and broader gaming industry.

Epic Games initiated legal action against Apple following a notification the vendor planned to pull the plug on its developer tools.

The judge noted Epic Games did not breach any contracts related to the game engine and developer tools, despite offering a direct payment option for its Fortnite title, branding Apple’s reaction as severe and likely to impact third-party developers despite having minimal impact on the iPhone maker itself.

But the court said a previous ban on popular gaming title Fortnite from the App Store was in Epic Games’ hands, given it could make changes to comply with Apple’s policies.