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

The highly-anticipated Epic Games vs. Apple trial kicked off today in a federal court in Oakland, California, with legal representatives for both business delivering opening remarks before District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
Attorneys for Epic Games tried to paint the App Store as anti-competitive and monopolistic, keeping in mind that developers are required to use Apples in-app purchase system, and therefore pay Apple a 30% commission on sales. (The rate drops to 15% for subscriptions after the very first year and for qualifying developers who sign up for Apples new Small Business Program and make less than $1 million per calendar year in net revenue.).
Epic Games explained the App Store as a “walled garden” and provided emails from existing and former Apple executives like Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller, Craig Federighi, Eddy Cue, and Scott Forstall in an attempt to show this claim.
Impressive Games desires Apple to be required to enable third-party app shops on iOS and to let designers provide direct payment systems, but Apple argued that a single, highly-curated App Store is required to protect the security, privacy, dependability, and quality that clients have actually concerned anticipate from the company.
” Epic desires us to be Android, however we do not want to be,” said Apple attorney Karen Dunn, describing the capability to sideload apps beyond the Google Play shop on Android devices. “Our customers dont desire that either,” she included.
Impressive Games is the developer of popular battle royale game Fortnite, which Apple got rid of from the App Store in August 2020, soon after Epic Games slyly introduced a direct payment option in the app, in defiance of the App Store guidelines. Epic Games then submitted an orchestrated suit versus Apple, accusing the company of anti-competitive behavior.
At the time, Apple stated Epic Games “took the unfortunate action of violating the App Store standards that are applied similarly to every developer and designed to keep the shop safe for our users,” including that it would “strive to work with Epic to solve these offenses so they can return Fortnite to the App Store.” Impressive Games has refused to work together, however, and Fortnite remains unavailable on the App Store.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney testified at the trial today, stating that by presenting the direct payment option, he wanted consumers to see that Apple exercises “total control” over iOS and software available on the platform.
The trial is expected to continue for an overall of three weeks, with Apples CEO Tim Cook and other executives expected to testify.