Current Events > Apple says that Epic CEO Tim Sweeney asked for special treatment

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/21/apple-says-epic-games-ceo-wanted-a-side-deal-for-fortnite.html

Apple responded to Epic Games lawsuit accusing it of anticompetitive behavior in how it controls the App Store, telling the court that the Fortnite maker violated Apples rules and shouldnt be placed back into the store temporarily while the legal battle rages.

In its filing, Apple alleges that Epic Games asked for an individual arrangement with Apple, producing three emails from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney that bolster its claim.

This is Apples first significant legal response to Epic Games after the dispute between the two companies spilled into the courts. It comes the week after Epic Games released a direct payment mechanism inside Fortnite designed to bypass the App Stores payment system, from which Apple takes a 30% cut. Apple subsequently removed Fortnite from its store for violating its policies. People who already have Fortnite installed on their iPhones can continue to play, but cannot update or download the app for the first time.

Epic sued it Apple in an attempt to force it to change its business practices and launched a free Fortnite marketing campaign portraying Apple as the villain.

So which is it, Sweeney? Are you fighting for fairness in the app developer market, or do you really just want to be exempt from the rules?

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Sweeney absolutely just wants money, he doesn't give a flying fuck about making anything better

do you support donald trump?

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Hope Epic loses for their greed.

Holy shit they really do want the Epic Games launcher on mobile phones
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https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21807251/epic_apple_emails.pdf

These are the emails between Sweeney and Apple. Fascinating read.

Sweeney is acting like an infant.

Hi Tim, Phil, Craig, Matt, Douglas,

Its a sad state of affairs that Apple's senior executives would hand Epic's sincere request off to Apple's legal team to respond with such a self-righteous and self-serving screed -- only lawyers could pretend that Apple is protecting consumers by denying choice in payments and stores to owners of iOS devices. However, I do thank you for the prompt response and clear answer to my two specific requests.

If Apple someday chooses to return to its roots building open platforms in which consumers have freedom to install software from sources of their choosing, and developers can reach consumers and do business directly without intermediation, then Epic will once again be an ardent supporter of Apple. Until then, Epic is in a state of substantial disagreement with Apple's policy and practices, and we will continue to pursue this, as we have done in the past to address other injustices in our industry.

Tim Sweeney

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SocksForWokMAX2 posted...

Hope Epic loses for their greed.

Is that how you view it? because using that method, Customers would get cheaper vbucks than going through apple

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Lmao, they're both crap, but Apple is still worse.

darkprince45 posted...

Is that how you view it? because using that method, Customers would get cheaper vbucks than going through apple

Theres no chance epic is lowering their hypothetical 30% cut they win from apple fron this lawsuit and giving it to the customers.

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NathanX95 posted...

Lmao, they're both crap, but Apple is still worse.

Apple is bad but nowhere near as bad as epic

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If Epic 'wins' then a ton of small developers also 'win' and hopefully that somehow finds it's way to the consumer. If Apple wins, nobody but Apple wins. Maybe Netflix and Amazon win there too.
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can't people just download fortnite directly from Epic instead of Apple anyway?

or is Epic so bad they don't even have their own launcher for fortnite still

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thronedfire2 posted...

can't people just download fortnite directly from Epic instead of Apple anyway?

or is Epic so bad they don't even have their own launcher for fortnite still

On Android yeah, on ios no

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DuranOfForcena posted...

lmao

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This is just billionaires arguing with billionaires.

Tim Sweeny is right for all the wrong reasons. Arguably the only virtuous thing is that he has stated publicly he wants all online storefronts to take as much as Epic is taking with EGS.

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Smashingpmkns posted...

If Epic 'wins' then a ton of small developers also 'win' and hopefully that somehow finds it's way to the consumer. If Apple wins, nobody but Apple wins. Maybe Netflix and Amazon win there too.

You're funny.

Thus whole thing is a battle over which company gets to keep the profit. The effect on consumers will be minimal, if any.

This is why I hate tim Sweeny. He loves preaching about the "good" he's doing for consumers and the industry and... its just a load of insincere shit. Don't piss on my head and tell me its raining, Tim, you're after bigger slices of the juicy money pie, thats all.

For my money, I couldn't give less of a shit who wins. Tencent vs Apple. Ooh. There's a fight I want a dog in.

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Man, Epic.

Theyll start doing something good, then just when you start thinking theyre alright theyll behave like a pack of digballs.

Then after being digballs for a while theyll do something decent. Cue the cycle.

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The_Creep_2020 posted...

Man, Epic.

Theyll start doing something good, then just when you start thinking theyre alright theyll behave like a pack of digballs.

Then after being digballs for a while theyll do something decent. Cue the cycle.

When has epic ever done anything good

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Rika_Furude posted...

When has epic ever done anything good

Pre Fortnite Epic was good. Fortnite really went to their heads

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The_Creep_2020 posted...

Man, Epic.

Theyll start doing something good, then just when you start thinking theyre alright theyll behave like a pack of digballs.

Then after being digballs for a while theyll do something decent. Cue the cycle.

Why would rich people ever do anything good?

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DarkBuster22904 posted...

You're funny.

Thus whole thing is a battle over which company gets to keep the profit. The effect on consumers will be minimal, if any.

For my money, I couldn't give less of a shot who wins. Tencent vs Apple. Ooh. There's a fight I want a dog in.

Point still stands that the actual outcome would benefit smaller developers and possibly consumers depending on how developers and publishers handle the new rules.

Sidenote: funny how CE users become deontologists only whenever dumb video game shit like this happens.
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Rika_Furude posted...

When has epic ever done anything good

Well, imagine the world without the Unreal engine
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Bio1590 posted...

Well, imagine the world without the Unreal engine

People would be less lazy

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Smashingpmkns posted...

Point still stands that the actual outcome would benefit smaller developers and possibly consumers depending on how developers and publishers handle the new rules.

Sidenote: funny how CE users become deontologists only whenever dumb video game shit like this happens.

What benefits are going to come to consumers? Smaller devs get to keep more microtransaction money. Prices won't lower. There won't suddenly be "more content." There's no incentive for that. The devs may be able to expand, sure, but they'll be squeezing the end user just as hard as before.

Trickle down economics is a load of shit, and this will do nothing for us for all the same reasons.

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Irony posted...

People would be less lazy

ah yes, the true valid argument against technological advancement

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Guerrilla Soldier posted...

ah yes, the true valid argument against technological advancement

I can't tell what you mean. If the Unreal Engine didn't exist a lot of devs would make their own engines instead of using Unreal.

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