Apple’s lawyer quizzed Epic Games’s CEO Tim Sweeney to an effort to show that Apple, far from operating like a monopoly, helps give video gamers choices to play across different platforms.
Malathi Nayak for Bloomberg News:
Richard Doren, an attorney for Apple, pointed out that his client’s iOS device users were allowed to game across different hardware platforms even as Sweeney complained to Sony Corp. in an email that friendships forged playing Fortnite — a multiplayer battle-royale game — were “being torn apart” because Sony didn’t allow cross-platform play. PlayStation enabled cross-platform play in 2018. Likewise, Apple allows gamers to use Epic’s in-game virtual currency purchased on other platforms when playing games on iOS devices but Sony, which has also invested in Epic, doesn’t allow such cross-wallet play, Doren said.
“Sony finally agreed to cross-platform play, but it has never agreed to cross-wallet transactions, is that correct?” Doren asked. “Yes,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney was asked why he uses an iPhone over an Android phone… For Apple, security and privacy are “fundamental differentiators,” Doren said. “You personally prefer to use iPhone because Apple’s approach to protecting your privacy is superior to Google’s?” he asked.
Sweeney said, “That’s among the reasons.”
MacDailyNews Take: In any sane universe, Epic Games has no case.
The bottom line is clear: Epic Games wants to enjoy all of the benefits of Apple’s App Store, including access to well over one billion of the world’s most affluent users for free. That is illogical, unfair, and, basically, theft.