On May 3, the trial between Epic and Apple officially began. The trial is taking place with people on-site and is broadcast to the public and press in a conference. Some children managed to obtain speaking rights in the conference and disrupted the proceedings with shouts like “Free Fortnite”.
What’s happening exactly? Since August 2020, Epic and Apple have been in a legal dispute. This was triggered because Epic directly sold V-Bucks in Fortnite, bypassing Apple’s revenue share in the App Store. As a result, Fortnite was removed from the store, leading to a lawsuit and countersuit.
On May 3, the trial officially began between the two parties. Present during the hearings were the judge and witnesses, including Tim Sweeney, the head of Epic, and Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.
The press, the public, and parts of the legal teams were able to join from outside. And that’s where problems arose and Fortnite fans made their appearance.
What did the kids do? According to the website The Verge, some individuals were able to speak in the public call during the first minutes of the trial, disrupting the proceedings (via The Verge).
It was mainly children and teenagers who shouted phrases like “Free Fortnite” or “bring Fortnite back to mobile, please your honor”. Others reportedly played music from Travis Scott or promoted their YouTube channel.
The call resembled a chaotic Discord conversation more than a serious trial. In total, over 200 people participated in the broadcast.
The audio version can also be listened to later on YouTube. The interruptions are primarily heard around the 6:40 mark:
How long did the disruptions last? According to The Verge, the hearing was supposed to start at 5:15 PM our time. However, it wasn’t until 5:30 PM that the situation was brought under control, allowing Tim Sweeney to start with his statements.
Apple views the legal dispute as a PR stunt, Epic wants equal rights for all
What is behind the legal dispute? Anyone selling a game or in-game currencies in the App Store is supposed to pay 30% of their revenue to Apple. However, Epic and their head Tim Sweeney find this rate too high and tried to bypass this fee. With several consequences:
- Apple therefore removed Fortnite from the App Store and Google followed suit.
- As a result, Epic Games sued Apple and Google.
- This led to a dispute where Apple closed all developer accounts of Epic developers. This also affected games and developers using Epic’s Unreal Engine.
- However, a court ruled that this behavior was unlawful, leading to these developers being reactivated.
- Fortnite is still not available in the App Store or the Play Store. Here we explain how you can still play Fortnite on iOS.
Apple sees Epic’s entire action as a PR strategy for a struggling Fortnite.
Why is Epic doing this? Tim Sweeney is the head of Epic and also owns a large share of the company. In his eyes, he is fighting with Epic for the rights of indie developers to their revenues and against monopolists.
In an interview Sweeney explained that the battle with Apple costs a lot and hardly any other company could afford this. Yet he remains optimistic that Epic can change the gaming industry.
Epic has also taken on Steam, as they continuously try to release new games exclusively on their platform, forcing Steam to lower the shares they take from developers. However, exclusives are said to be very costly:
How did the first day go? On the first day, mainly Tim Sweeney and the lawyers from Apple spoke. The focus was on whether Apple’s 30% cut is really justified, how much Epic actually earns with Fortnite, and the state of the Epic Store.
Many figures were presented here, such as the 9.1 billion dollars that Fortnite is said to have generated in 2018 and 2019. This is enough to buy Star Wars twice.
What happens next in the trial? According to PCGamer, the trial will mainly involve compiling all arguments from the past months (via PCGamer). In addition to the heads of Epic and Apple, Lori Wright, Vice President of Xbox Business Development, and other individuals outside the two companies will also present their statements.
It is suspected that the trial will last about 2 weeks. Afterwards, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will issue a decision.
