Apple Accuses Microsoft of Using Epic Games in Legal Attack

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Image: Apple



Things have taken an interesting turn in the legal battle between Apple and Epic Games. Apple had asked for an adverse credibility finding against the testimony of Xbox executive Lori Wright, which claimed that Xbox hardware has never been profitable and revenue is generated from services and other products. Apple has now escalated its concerns with a new filing accusing Epic Games of being a stalking horse for Microsoft and withholding evidence. The term describes “an entity using a third party to challenge an idea or concept in order to gauge the reaction.”

Apple asked for such a ruling earlier, but upped its accusations in the new filing. “A...

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[Uvilla]

Somebody is losing their minds here, I don't know who.

 

[Brian_B]

Hmm.. it's an interesting argument. But I can't really see it.

Sweeney was on board with Valve / Newell when Win10 first came out and was pushing everyone to the Microsoft Store and UWPs. Back when Valve threatened to shift everyone over to Linux and Steam Boxes. I wouldn't say Microsoft really relented, but they did back off on aggressiveness of pushing the platform.

And Microsoft really dreams that they could so exactly what Apple is doing. They have tried like mad to push people to the Microsoft Store. Their efforts at mobile devices mirrored Apple, sans any level of success. Microsoft doesn't really have any reason to go after Apple - they aren't really in the same marketplaces any longer, and only serve to (mostly) compliment each other.

That, and if Epic does win - MS may have to open up access to the Xbox console platform: something they could have easily done since it's running on a Windows ecosystem, but have never entertained -- because it makes them money.

I don't really know what Sweeney's beef is here, but I think this suit is 100% Epic and I can't see anyone with any pressing interest for Epic to be a proxy for. Maybe Tencent, or some other very large, primarily mobile, developer... and Tencent does own a not insignificant slice of Epic...

In a somewhat related ironic twist - I don't know if anyone remembers the original iPhone release. The App Store didn't even exist: Steve Jobs original vision was that everyone would just develop web apps, and Safari would be come the defacto interface for developers. Everything would be open, no IAP or storefront, no percent cuts, but you also didn't get hardware level access, you only got what was exposed through the web API. It wasn't until EA showed off a version of Spore, which had super secret direct access to the gyros and accelerometers for positioning, that Steve relented and allowed Devs access to a real programming API -- but only if they went through the App Store and were vetted / curated (and paid).