Apple has pulled the plug on Epic Games’ App Store developer account, terminating the studio's ability to submit new apps or updates to the App Store. This is a dramatic escalation in their legal fight, though not one totally unexpected, as Apple threatened to do as much last week.

Epic Games recently added an option for Fortnite players to pay it directly for in-game upgrades, thus avoiding the 30 per cent cut that Apple takes through its App Store. This broke Apple’s rules, and the Cupertino company immediately pulled the game and promised to terminate the studio's developer account if it did not comply by Friday 29 August. Epic Games is suing Apple and has yet to submit to its demands.

Here is Apple's statement on the matter:

"We are disappointed that we have had to terminate the Epic Games account on the App Store. We have worked with the team at Epic Games for many years on their launches and releases. The court recommended that Epic comply with the App Store guidelines while their case moves forward, guidelines they’ve followed for the past decade until they created this situation. Epic has refused. Instead, they repeatedly submit Fortnite updates designed to violate the guidelines of the App Store. This is not fair to all other developers on the App Store and is putting customers in the middle of their fight. We hope that we can work together again in the future, but unfortunately, that is not possible today."

All this means Fortnite is no longer available on the iPhone or iPad, even if you’ve downloaded it before. Other Epic games, such as Infinity Blade, are also no longer able to be re-downloaded. A judge on Monday even denied Epic’s motion for a temporary restraining order to prevent Fortnite’s removal. The judge did, however, grant Epic’s temporary restraining order regarding Unreal Engine, which is used by many game developers.

Apple said on Friday is it complying with the judge's order and will not end the developer account that Epic uses for Unreal Engine