Epic takes its 'Fortnite' fight with Apple to the Supreme Court
After losing on nearly every count against Apple in lower courts and appeals venues, Epic is taking its last shot at prevailing on its antitrust case to the Supreme Court.
Epic Games viral '1984' ad campaign against Apple
Epic lost its antitrust case against Apple, didn't accomplish anything with appeals, and has complained about the one ruling it did win. Epic has also already appealed to the Supreme Court about the case before, and failed to get anything changed.
Despite all of that, Epic is ready to challenge Apple again by bringing the case to the Supreme Court for review. In a court document reviewed by AppleInsider, Epic has filed a writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to review the antitrust case and its ruling.
Epic has accused Apple of antitrust practices that uses monopoly control of the App Store to corner the iPhone app market and rake in billions in revenue. Apple's alleged control prevents anyone, like Epic, from starting their own app store on iPhone and competing with the company.
Apple argues that it doesn't participate in antitrust practices and companies are welcome to compete via Safari websites and other venues. The closed nature of the App Store, Apple argues, is for user privacy and security.
Epic launched an attack on Apple via its game Fortnite that bypassed Apple's App Store payment system. After Apple kicked the offending app from the App Store, Epic sued.
Epic lost on every count but one, Apple's anti-steering practices. Apple has appealed against this ruling and a stay is in place to stop Apple from having to comply with the ruling until the appeal is complete.
It isn't clear if Epic will have any success appealing the Supreme Court. Changes to the lower court's ruling could have significant ramifications for Apple, iPhone, and the entire app economy.
Epic Supreme Court Petition by Mike Wuerthele
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Epic does provide a great platform but its leader just needs to go. He's not doing the company any favors at all. So I don't necessarily want to see it go but they just to refocus their priorities and going after a company that can help them grow is not the answer.
This does not look like a case that the Supreme Court is likely to agree to hear, but Epic's problem is that, at the end of the litigation, the preliminary injunction stopping Apple from ending its contractual arrangement with Epic also comes to an end.
— Allowing minors to charge game items to CCs without parental consent
—Using deceptive practices to make it easy to accidentally buy items you don’t want
— Making it impossible to get a refund if you accidentally bought something or no longer want it
— Locking the accounts of gamers who requested refunds or complained
This isn’t just an opinion: the government forced Epic to pay out $245 million to settle these claims in a lawsuit it brought against Epic, so this is a proven and admitted pattern of behaviour.
The recent flake out of Unity also adds to the fire now that Apple is starting to add Ray Tracing cores to their hardware, and into future to even smaller devices, they need more control the 15 pro with its A17 processor (heat), and what’s coming up with the Apple Vision Pro, the tolerances, wattage/heat/battery are just too important. if programs like Instagram are causing trouble what do you think gonna happen with a game engine? I’m sure Apple is talking about it, with Epic/Unity in their face in recent times.
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US. Just take a look around. It’s too important…. In the future.
What "flake out of Unity"?
Not sure what you mean by Instagram causing trouble or what that has anything to do with game engines. Developers actively work to optimize their software for new hardware, often in tandem with Apple. This is no different for Unity and Epic.
Not sure what you're talking about, once again.
Unity has recently backed down from a proposed licensing fee change that really annoyed their developers. There's another AI article covering why it's a problem for Apple.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/fortnite-developer-epic-games-axing-16-of-staff-laying-off-830-employees-and-sells-bandcamp/ar-AA1hphko
https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/layoffs-at-epic
Sweeney says they've been spending more than they earn for a while. They went to net-zero hiring, cut back on marketing but have still had to layoff 830 people (1/3 from their core teams). This will leave them with over 4000 employees.
It looks like they have been bitten by the same problem as Facebook/Meta trying to invest in the metaverse. They mentioned trying to cut down legal costs trying to take on Apple and say the legal fight is about the metaverse.
They won't have long-term financial problems as long as Fortnite keeps bringing in the revenue ($20b+ so far).
Sweeney complained about a report saying Apple and Google were among the top earning game companies:
"Seeing Apple and Google in the top of the game revenue charts, making tens of billion of dollars every year, is disgusting. THEY DON’T MAKE GAMES! They just place an unwanted and useless toll both in front of games made by others."
But the problem is including Apple and Google on the graph and implying they are 'game companies'. Most of those companies run stores for 3rd party game developers and make a significant amount of revenue that way too just like Epic does (they only really make 3 games - Unreal Tournament, Gears of War, Fortnite). His beef is that companies who don't make games shouldn't take a cut from companies who sell games through their store, which is a dumb point of view. GameStop, WalMart, Amazon sold games for years without making games and no legal challenge from Sweeney.
The real elephant in the room, as is clear from the chart, is Tencent, which is the largest outside investor in Epic. They are the ones who want to take Apple and Google's revenue. The instant that Apple is forced to allow 3rd party stores in China, Tencent will find a way to become the dominant store there, like they have with Google and it will cost Apple $10b+.
You don’t want to and seemingly you can’t keep up with recent developments. Once again it’s too important. If I a social media program can cause a heat problem. What do you think about a game using a third-party gaming engine? The immaturity of Sweeney Todd and the Unity meltdown says it all, and it won’t get any better with any other third-party gaming engine company. Apple may have to do something not because they want to but because they have to.
Also it isn’t like the AAA game companies are jumping to support Apple ecosystems anyway, and if they are as flaky as Unreal Engine and Unity, Apple definitely isn’t gonna pay any of them to do anything, that’s probably what they’re hoping for. They’re hoping Apple will pay them sight unseen upfront, ray tracing is already in the A17 and is coming to the M3 Apple Silicon, whether they participate or not.