Epic says Apple's disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Fortnite soon

Epic Games has today tweeted out that Apple will "no longer allow users to sign into Fortnite using "Sign In with Apple" as soon as September 11, 2020". That could potentially leave gamers unable to play Fortnite, even if they already have it installed. It could prevent them from accessing their data entirely, too.

Sign in with Apple allows users to create accounts with apps and services without giving them their email address and creating a password. Instead, Apple acts as the middle-man and users sign in using their Apple ID credentials. Apple is stopping that from working, although it isn't clear exactly when.

Epic has a new support document online that will guide users through the steps needed to ensure they can get around Apple's move – they'll need to update their Epic account to their real email address and create a proper password.

Apple will point to App Store rules and say that no developer account equals no Sign in with Apple. But the account is long gone and the feature still works. It might be in the paperwork, but this clearly isn't a technical limitation. Apple could keep Sign in with Apple working if it wanted to.

We all know why Apple is doing this and, frankly, it all seems too petty for words. This doesn't impact Epic one bit. It impacts Epic's users.

Apple will do well to remember that they're its users, too.