The ongoing legal battle betweenEpic Gamesand both Apple and Google (in separate lawsuits) is the antitrust argument of the decade. For those who aren’t familiar, last August Fortnite players received an update that gave them the option to purchase V-bucks, the in-game currency, for a discount if they circumvented the payment systems used by the iTunes and Google Play stores. Both companies pulled the game from their stores in retaliation, saying the move was a violation of their Terms of Service.
What followed was a flurry of activity, most notable beingEpic Games' “Nineteen-Eighty Fortnite” ad, which parodies Apple’s famous “1984” commercial, and the #freefortnite campaign. Epic Games filed suits against Apple and Google separately in the Northern District of California, and both companies issued countersuits in kind. In a hearing yesterday where Apple claimed they were owed lost profits, Federal District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers threw out two of Apple’s claims, telling its lawyer, Anna Casey, “you’re able to’t just say it’s independently wrongful. You actually have to have facts.”
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The gist of the argument Epic Games is making is that the Terms of Service put down by Apple and Google, granting them an industry-standard 30% share of profits made via microtransactions on their platforms, falls into the realm of monopolistic overreach and works to suppress independent game studios in the mobile market. The cases clearly will not be resolved until 2021, if not later, and it is looking likeFortnitewill remain banned from iOSfor a year minimum regardless.
At the first hearing held in September, Rogers suggested that the case ofEpic Games vs. Apple should go to trial by jury, saying the lawsuits are “important cases on the frontier of anti-trust law,” and that the arguments should be held in front of real people. A court date was set for July 2021, but neither of the legal teams chose to pursue a trial by jury.
At the beginning of October, Judge Rogersblocked Apple from pulling games running the Unreal Engine, an Epic Games product, from the iTunes store, but did not order them to reinstateFortnite. This was likely because the many independent gaming studios which use the Unreal Engine were not involved in Epic Games' decisions leading up to the legal action, and pulling their titles would needlessly punish the uninvolved third parties. Another court date was set for May 2021.
Leaked images of a recent survey suggest thatFortnitemay be considering a monthly subscription servicewith perks, but it is unclear whether it is in response to the cases, or whether it will affect any of the arguments going forward.
Fortniteis out for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in development.
