Epic v Apple didn’t come as much of a surprise. They’ve had beef for quite some time now. It all began in August of 2020. Epic added an option to pay directly for in-app purchases. They wanted to avoid paying 30% of all in-app purchases, downloads and subs to Apple and Google (that’s what they charge according to their policy). Unhappy with this move by epic games, Apple and Google directly removed Fortnite from app store and play store, respectively.
Epic said, I’ll do you one better… They filed a court case against the tech giants for “anti trust violations” and launched a PR campaign- #FreeFortnite. Google still doesn’t have a court date for the battle, but Apple’s trial has started. It’s turned out to be more interesting than anticipated.
Epic is basing their case on how Apple’s iOS App Store is an anti competitive monopoly. In their defence, Apple is saying that it’s how the industry functions. They aren’t doing anything different. Apple also went on to attack them by painting a story which presents Epic as an opportunist, who is cares for itself.
A monopoly is basically a market where only one company essentially offers their products ad services. Which means, they directly influence the output, prices etc. Epic called out apple for being a monopoly because they have the power to dictate how apps operate, how much they’ll be forced to pay and so on.
The case started of on a rather interesting note. Since the case is in person with limited capacity, there is an option to dial in and listen to the proceedings. However, the judge forgot to mute the participants for 20 mins causing absolute havoc. There were teenagers and kids screaming “free Fortnite” or “bring back Fortnite on mobile.” Some of them went ahead to play Travis Scott songs and advertise their streaming channels. Which is why the trial which was suppose to began at 11:15 AM, began at 11:30 AM. Nicolas Rivero recorded it and posted it, if you want to listen to it!
In the course of events that followed, Epic that the only company they have a special deal with, is Sony. They were explaining why it’s important for Fortnite to have cross-play and cross-progression between all its platforms, including iOS. They described their arrangement with Sony. Sony’s issue was that- while a majority of the player’s time is spent on playing on PlayStation, they end up spending more money on other platforms like iOS or PC. So Epic compromised and said, when the playtime doesn’t add up to the money spent on PlayStation, Epic will pay them some money to make up for the difference. This is the math that was shared during the court case:
PSN Revenue Share divided by PSN Gameplay Share has to be less than 0.85. In Month 1, it was greater than 0.85 so Epic didn’t have to pay them any money. In Month 2, PSN players spend $1 million across all platforms, but only only $60,000 of that is on PSN. That is less than 0.85, which is why Epic had to pay Sony $52,000 royalty. (PS: Sony doesn’t seemed to have wanted this information out in public)
This isn’t the first time Epic has bought up this concern with Apple. Back in 2015, Tim Sweeney (the CEO of Epic games), wrote an email to Tim Cook voicing similar concerns.
Tim Cook forwarded the email to Phil Schiller (a fellow worker at Apple) with a question: “Is this the guy that was at one of our rehearsals?”
Tim Cook did not even know who he was!
There are more emails from 2018 which show Sweeney pushing Mark Rein, co-founder at Epic, to push for a meeting with Greg Joswiak (senior at Apple).
According to the Verge, Rein was ultimately ale to arrange a hearing for the idea through Apple’s Tim Kirby. Now in 2021, they are yet to come to a conclusion…
It’s going to be an interesting trial with a lot of interesting facts uncovered. Is Apple the forbidden fruit for Epic?
PS: If you want to read their proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law (which are over 300 pages each), click here for Epic’s and here for Apple’s.
The Echo-nomist 
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