NEW YORK: Microsoft Corp on Sunday said in a court filing that Apple Inc's threat to cut off the creator of "Fortnite" from Apple's developer tools would hurt Microsoft's gaming business, as well as other game developers.

The filing came in a dispute between Apple and Epic Games. Apple removed Epic's titles from its App Store after the game maker violated the iPhone maker's in-app payment rules.

Epic says that Apple has also threatened to cut off its access to Apple tools needed to maintain "Unreal Engine," software that many game developers license to create better graphics. Microsoft said the move would hurt at least one of its own game titles called "Forza Street" that uses the engine for the iOS version of the game.