Epic says Apple is disabling Sign In with Apple for Fortnite on Sept. 11 and impacted users should update their account email address and password now

What you need to know — Epic has tweeted to warn users that Apple is going to block Sign in with Apple for Fortnite.

iMore 2020-09-10 Oliver Haslam

Context & Ripple Effects

This is the identity-layer turn in the Epic–Apple standoff: after Apple threatened to terminate all of Epic's developer accounts and locked iOS and macOS players out of Fortnite's next season with no cross-play, the dispute has moved from app distribution to login credentials — Apple cutting off Sign in with Apple means players' Epic accounts tied to it need a new email and password to survive.

The warning also lands amid a support squeeze: Apple had already complained that Epic was routing Fortnite users to contact AppleCare, degrading support and refund quality globally, so a mass credential migration is hitting exactly the channel both sides are fighting over. The very next day brought partial relief, with an indefinite extension letting existing iOS players keep using Sign in with Apple.

First-order effects

Fortnite players who log in via Sign in with Apple face losing access unless they add an email address and password to their Epic account before Sept. 11 — Epic is telling them to act immediately.
Epic's account system takes on migration load right as its players are already locked out of new seasons and cross-play on Apple devices.

Second-order effects

Cutting login access pushes confused users toward AppleCare — the same support-and-refund quality problem Apple blamed on Epic days earlier — raising Apple's own cost of enforcing the cutoff.
That friction helps explain the rapid walk-back: within a day Apple granted existing iOS players an indefinite extension, narrowing the punishment rather than absorbing the support burden.

Third-order effects

If platform holders treat single-sign-on services as leverage in commercial disputes, developers gain a structural reason to avoid dependency on platform-owned identity layers, and regulators scrutinizing the App Store fight get a concrete case of user lock-in being used as a weapon.

The trend: Platform disputes are expanding from app distribution into developer tooling and user identity, where cutting access punishes players as much as publishers.

Discussion

@epicgames Epic Games Store on x
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. https://epic.gm/SIwA
@fortnitestatus Fortnite Status on x
Apple will no longer allow users to sign into Fortnite 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. https://fn.gg/SIwA
@rileytestut Riles on x
Lesson: Don't use “Sign In with Apple” unless you want Apple to be able to remotely kill all your user accounts... https://twitter.com/...
@joeljrichards Joel Richards on x
@reneritchie It may simply be a function of Apple winding down that account. Plausible to me Apple didn't consider this scenario when they created the backend. Without verified dev accounts can sign-in with Apple work? Serious question.
@gruber John Gruber on x
If true, this is a user-hostile choice by Apple. It would penalize Fortnite players far more than Epic. It also would harm the reputation of Sign In With Apple as something developers should trust. Let's see on the “if true” part. I don't take Epic's word for this at face value. …
@nsexceptional Tanner B on x
Apple is really shooting themselves in the foot here, just to spite someone... They're NEVER going to fully recover from this battle, not in the next 20 years at least. Their new reputation for being a petty, spiteful bully is basically set in stone at this point. https://twitter…
@timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x
Presumably they're just posturing for the court, but if Apple truly believes the fight over the App Store's distribution and payment monopoly is a “basic disagreement over money,” then they've lost all sight of the tech industry's founding principles. https://www.engadget.com/...
@firt Maximiliano Firtman on x
Sign in with Apple (mostly the anonymous part) was a good idea but with this level of commitment to keep it running in the future for all your apps, it's setting a big risk for your accounts using those credentials 😒 https://twitter.com/...
@homakov Egor Homakov on x
This is the reason why single sign on should NOT rely on an external server (be it Apple, Facebook etc) but use http://localhost/auth with user-derived key that cannot be seized or disabled. That's the only healthy long term auth method. That's what I proposed with SecureLogin ht…
@gruber John Gruber on x
Or maybe there's some technical limitation where SIWA simply cannot continue working with a revoked Apple developer account? But if that's the case, how is SIWA still working today for Fortnite, even though Epic's dev account has already been revoked?
@html5test Niels Leenheer on x
So... don't get into a fight with Apple or they will not only kick you out of the store, but will also mess with your existing customers. That does not really make me want to implement “Sign In with Apple” in my apps. https://www.macrumors.com/...
@matthewbbolton Matthew Bolton on x
This is a staggeringly bad idea from Apple. If it's technical necessity due to fallout from the whole situation, then it's a system that needs fixing ASAP. It punishes users, not Epic, and makes using Sign In With Apple an unpredictable risk. https://twitter.com/...
@gernot @gernot on x
Apple ending „Sign in with Apple" support for Epic Games is making the whole service look EXTREMELY bad. NEVER shut down a service others depend on for LOGIN. I don't care why, just don't. Developers TRUST that this doesn't ever happen.
@tapbot_paul Paul Haddad on x
Was late 90s Microsoft worse than 20s Apple?
@realshiina Shiina on x
Well, this wasn't supposed to happen. The “Announce-The-Downtime-Inator” is a complete failure. https://twitter.com/...
@gruber John Gruber on x
@housewarmer (a) That's not obvious. Epic's developer account has already been terminated, but Sign In With Apple still works with Fortnite today. (b) If it's the inevitable result of the terminated developer account, then Epic's description of what is going on is false.
@nathanblawrence @nathanblawrence on x
@rileytestut This is one of those issues that eventually comes up with every OAuth system — you inevitably have to rely on the good will of the other data providers your own system must connect with.
@tapbot_paul Paul Haddad on x
@KielO They can, they just can't have Sign in with Facebook/Twitter/Google without having the Apple one.
@gruber John Gruber on x
I mean maybe Apple's leadership is so vindictive, so blinded by anger at Epic, that they're making decisions that hurt their own users and the reputation of Apple's own services. It's possible. But it strikes me as out of character.
@stroughtonsmith Steve Troughton-Smith on x
@felipecn @gruber well, until recently, 7% went to Apple's affiliate program, and I guess 23% went to Apple. Apple reclaimed that 7% when they shut down the app affiliate links a couple years ago
@n Naoki Hiroshima on x
I used to think “Sign in with Apple” is a really awesome feature for everyone. https://twitter.com/...
@clairernovotny Claire Novotny on x
This is an abusive action that harms users. First Apple mandates use of their sign-in option. Now they hold your users hostage if you don't want to use their store & pay them 30%. Users suffer in the end & will be stranded from their accounts & anything they paid for. https://twi…
@stroughtonsmith Steve Troughton-Smith on x
@gruber I don't know the details of Sign In with Apple, but Apple's docs suggest it requires usage of the developer portal and certificate system. In which case, they'd have no way to access that or renew certs. Example of the outsized amount of power Apple has in the dev relatio…
@can Can Duruk on x
Super shitty move on Apples part if real. https://twitter.com/...
@chuq @chuq on x
@gruber it's showing an intention to refuse any compromise. Epic picked a fight, Apple's willing to scorch Epic's ground rather than find a middle ground solution. (not saying Apple's right. But Epic picked a fight they likely now regret)
@tapbot_paul Paul Haddad on x
Petty, surely will make companies even less likely to implement Sign In with Apple. https://twitter.com/...
@hbkirb @hbkirb on x
“But it's Epic's fault for breaking the rules!” If you only see it as Epic Is Bad, you conveniently ignore real issues with Apple's platform. Do users appreciate SIWA's convenience? Yes. Is it a poorly documented feature forced upon all apps with existing social login? Also yes. …
@reneritchie Rene Ritchie on x
Agreed. But this also reads very victimy. If Epic breaks App Store rules, gets their app and developer account pulled, and the lack of a dev account breaks Sign-in With Apple, yet they've been told they can get it all back any time with a simple reversion, that's on them? https:/…
@never_released Longhorn on x
For an identity provider service, this is certainly not the very best move @Apple could have made... I wonder how soon Epic Games was aware of that one, Apple is within their rights to do it, but this literally only hurts their users. https://twitter.com/...
@reneritchie Rene Ritchie on x
“How to relay anonymized log-in credentials when the dev deliberately gets themselves ejected from the store and there's no longer a trust certificate in place” is an edge-case I'm guessing Apple failed to consider? (Doing it regardless of trust would be a huge attack vector?) ht…
@icculus Ryan C. Gordon on x
The only way Apple could look more like a bully at this point is if they started literally stuffing Fortnite players in lockers. https://twitter.com/...
@happypower Happy Power on x
RIP https://twitter.com/...
@ron_miller Ron Miller on x
AmI the only who thinks this spat is dumb? https://twitter.com/...
@jonlis1 Jonathan Lis on x
Have to say that it's particularly galling the government needs to break the law because of ‘unforeseen’ problems with the Northern Ireland Protocol when some of us published detailed articles on those problems for two solid years
@baconbrix Evan Bacon on x
I wish I could give Apple the key to my car and my credit card too. Ya know, so they can protect me. https://twitter.com/...
@theryanford Ryan Ford on x
They poked the bear and now the bear is biting back. https://twitter.com/...
@devinkofsky Devin on x
This seems pretty stupid. As a user, I started adding this feature across apps thinking it was secure and painless. If any future app can just have it removed, then it defeats the purpose of migrating to Apple Sign In! https://twitter.com/...
@hodapp Eli Hodapp on x
If nothing else this whole battle between Epic and Apple has been really interesting watching Apple ruthlessly weaponize all the technologies that they spend all of WWDC talking developers into becoming totally reliant on.
@hodapp Eli Hodapp on x
Add one more thing to the long list of reasons to avoid implementing Sign In with Apple: They can just take it away from you whenever they feel like it. https://twitter.com/...

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