The Epic v. Apple lawsuit is slated to begin in full next May, which means 10 more months of smaller salvos between the companies. The most recent came Friday, when Epic Games responded to Apple’s claim that Epic’s “flagrant disregard for its contractual commitments and other misconduct has caused significant harm to Apple.”
“Apple’s repeated assertions of theft boil down to the extraordinary assertion that Epic’s collection of payments by players of Epic’s game to enjoy the work of Epic’s artists, designers, and engineers is the taking of something that belongs to Apple,” Epic Games argues, denying that it had stolen anything from Apple and claiming that it didn’t “interfere with any prospective economic advantage Apple sought to gain from Fortnite users separate and apart from their interest in Fortnite.”
The whole mess began in August when Epic Games attempted to wiggle its own discounted direct-payment system into Fortnite on Apple’s AppStore, essentially daring Apple to shut Fortnite down so that Epic could launch a lawsuit over it and hash out whether or not Apple is actually engaging in the monopolistic antitrust behavior critics have accused it of. Childish shenanigans and actual propaganda and absurd court filings ensued. You can stay tuned for a Lawful Neutral column recapping the whole showdown later this week, or skim through our coverage so far:
