Key Highlights From The Epic Games V. Apple Antitrust Lawsuit

Republished By Plato

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While the legal fight between Apple and Epic Games over antitrust claims has just begun, some interesting facts are coming out of court documents and early witness testimony, giving the public a glimpse inside the inner workings of some of the biggest companies in gaming.

For example, court documents indicated that Epic’s popular battle royale game Fortnite brought in more than $9B USD total for Epic in 2018 and 2019.

In addition, documents highlight the challenges in implementing one of Epic’s greatest milestones in making Fortnite one of the most popular games in the world; when it was trying to make the game playable across multiple platforms, it took a lot to convince Sony to allow PlayStation users into the cross-play mix, and Epic had to make a number of concession to make it possible.

According to a document called “Cross-Platform Revenue Share,” Epic gave the platform owner the ability to charge royalties in cases where Fortnite PS4 players would buy in-game currency but spend it on another platform, based on certain financial thresholds being met. The agreement also allowed Sony to audit Epics books and records related to the game.

Other interesting tidbits gleaned from the first few days of the trial and documents:

Epic paid $115M to Take-Two Interactive division 2K Games for limited Borderlands 3 exclusivity on the Epic Games Store at launch; which included $11M for Borderlands: The Handsome Collection and $20M for Civilization VI to be offered as free games on the Epic Games Store.
Speaking of its free monthly game offerings on the Epic Games Store, Epic paid $1.5M for Batman: Arkham Asylum, $150K for Alan Wake, and $75K for Fez to be available as freebies.
A document related to a deal between Epic and Nintendo stipulated that no one working for Epic was a member of the Yakuza.
Epic is keeping Fortnite away from Walmart’s cloud gaming project, “Project xCloud,” because it conflicts with its plans related to cloud gaming, though what that is was not disclosed.
Finally, on day one of the trial, Epic CEO and founder Tim Sweeney said that it took him a long time to come to the conclusion that Apple was having a negative impact on his company and other developers: “Apple’s policies have kept us from implementing the future we wanted on Fortnite,” said Sweeney during his testimony. “I support the right for Apple to offer a purchasing system. It’s about the ability to offer a competing purchasing system so developers can choose.”