Apple Says Epic Games ‘Wants Us to Be Android, But We Don’t Want to Be’

The highly-anticipated Epic Games vs. Apple trial began today in a federal court in Oakland, California, with attorneys for both companies providing opening remarks before District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
Lawyers for Epic Games tried to paint the App Store as monopolistic and anti-competitive, noting that developers are required to use Apples in-app purchase system, and thus pay Apple a 30% commission on sales. (The rate drops to 15% for memberships after the very first year and for certifying developers who sign up for Apples brand-new Small Business Program and earn less than $1 million per fiscal year in net revenue.).
Epic Games described the App Store as a “walled garden” and presented emails from current and previous Apple executives like Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller, Craig Federighi, Eddy Cue, and Scott Forstall in an effort to show this claim.
Epic Games desires Apple to be required to enable third-party app stores on iOS and to let designers offer direct payment systems, however Apple argued that a single, highly-curated App Store is essential to protect the security, personal privacy, dependability, and quality that consumers have actually concerned get out of the company.
” Epic desires us to be Android, but we do not desire to be,” stated Apple attorney Karen Dunn, referring to the ability to sideload apps outside of the Google Play shop on Android gadgets. “Our consumers do not desire that either,” she included.
Impressive Games is the creator of popular battle royale video game Fortnite, which Apple eliminated from the App Store in August 2020, quickly after Epic Games slyly presented a direct payment alternative in the app, in defiance of the App Store rules. Legendary Games then filed an orchestrated suit against Apple, accusing the business of anti-competitive habits.
At the time, Apple stated Epic Games “took the unfortunate step of breaching the App Store guidelines that are used similarly to every designer and developed to keep the shop safe for our users,” adding that it would “strive to deal with Epic to deal with these offenses so they can return Fortnite to the App Store.” Legendary Games has declined to comply, nevertheless, and Fortnite stays unavailable on the App Store.
Impressive Games CEO Tim Sweeney affirmed at the trial today, saying that by introducing the direct payment alternative, he desired consumers to see that Apple exercises “overall control” over iOS and software application offered on the platform.
The trial is anticipated to continue for a total of 3 weeks, with Apples CEO Tim Cook and other executives anticipated to affirm.