Epic Games vs Apple trial: Here are all the latest developments so far

The court battle is seen as the most high-profile antitrust case in the tech world. Lately, Apple and other silicon behemoths including Google, which runs the Play Store for Android users, are on the radar of regulators in Washington and Europe. The case will involve witnesses including Apple CEO Tim Cook and his top brass. Representatives for Facebook and Microsoft are also expected to testify. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney testified on the first day of the high-profile trial.

Here’s every development that has happened so far in the ongoing Epic Games vs Apple trial.

Fortnite made $9 billion in two years

Epic Games’ battle royale game Fortnite made more than $9 billion in revenue in the first two years, court documents from the Epic vs Apple trial revealed. The document highlighted that Fornite made $5.4 billion in 2018 and $3.7 billion in 2019, with the popular game bringing in a total of $9.1 billion in two years. Fortnite now has 400 million total registered users, as per Sweeney. He also confirmed that Epic Games had made $5.1 billion in 2020. But while Fortnite continues to soar in popularity, despite not being available to play on iOS, the Epic Games store is yet to turn profitable.

Apple defends App Store control in court

On the first day of the trial, Apple argued that it built the App Store and the set rules to ensure apps are of higher quality. “Epic wants us to be Android, but we don’t want to be. And our consumers don’t want that either. They want the choice,” Apple lawyer Karen Dunn was quoted as saying by CNBC. Apple said its rules have helped create an ecosystem that immensely benefits iPhone developers. That’s the reason why Apple does not allows iPhone users to sideload apps on their devices like Android. The App Store boasts over 1.8 million apps.

Tim Cook didn’t even know who Tim Sweeny was, 2015 email reveals

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney had reached out to Tim Cook to change its rules for the App Store. In 2015, Sweeney emailed Cook directly requesting to turn the App Store into an “open platform.” The email exchange was made public as part of the ongoing antitrust trial. “The App Store has done much good for the industry, but it doesn’t seem tenable for Apple to be the sole arbiter of expression and commerce over an app platform approaching a billion users,” Sweeney wrote to Cook. Rather than replying to Sweeney. Cook instead forwarded that mail to former Apple senior VP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller and current Apple senior VP of Internet software and services Eddy Cue. “Is this the guy that was at one of our rehearsals?” reads an email from Apple CEO Tim Cook. It’s a bit weird to note that Epic Games has made a number of appearances at Apple launch events, though Sweeney didn’t necessarily appear on the stage to talk about the company or about a new development.

Apple exec suggested lowering App Store commissions in 2011, emails show

Phil Schiller, the top executive in charge of App Store, had suggested the idea of cutting its 30 per cent commission rate to 20 per cent in 2011.“Do we think our 70/30 split will last forever?” Schiller wrote in an email to then CEO Steve Jobs and Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services. The email was included as part of the ongoing court battle between Apple and Epic Games and was first reported by Bloomberg. “While I am a staunch supporter of the 70/30 split … I don’t think that 70/30 will last that unchanged forever.” In response, Apple told Bloomberg that Schiller did say the App Store made $1 billion in profit in 2011, and there’s no evidence the App Store’s fees are tied to its profits. The email didn’t reveal much, it does establish that Schiller had the idea to cut App Store commission to remain competitive.

Apple attempted to stop Netflix from discontinuing in-app purchases

In 2018, Apple attempted to stop Netflix from discontinuing the use of the App Store’s in-app payments system. For those of you who don’t remember, the streaming giant stopped offering in-app subscription options and instead started asking new users to sign up for Netflix outside of the ‌App Store‌ in order to avoid paying Apple’s 30 percent cut. The move didn’t go with Apple, and the company started making attempts to negotiate with Netflix. Per 9to5Mac, Carson Oliver, Apple’s director of App Store business management, sent out an email and asked his colleagues to take “punitive measures” against Netflix after failing to cut a deal with the streaming giant. Surprisingly, a year later, Apple announced its competitor to Netflix in the form of Apple TV+.