- Apple’s lawyer claimed that Epic Games acted dishonestly and knowingly so when it enabled a third-party payment processor
- The defense steered in a direction where it tried to draw parallels between Epic’s commitments and allegedly breaking these commitments
- Some documents transpired on how Epic Games handled Sony’s reluctance to enable cross-platform play
Epic Games legal battle against Apple over the iOS Store ban continues as Apple tries to prove that Epic Games had acted “dishonestly.”
Things Get Intense in Latest Round of Questioning
Put enough executives from rival companies in one room and sooner or later, tensions are bound to rise. Bring them to a court of law and you have a recipe for disaster.
That is precisely what is happening in the Epic Games vs Apple lawsuit which has high-ranking execs from multiple companies deliver testimony on competitive practices in the iOS Store, which is the focus of Epic Games' legal onslaught.
In the latest salvo of legal proceedings, Epic Games engineer fellow Andrew Grant took the witness stand, representing his employer, with Apple attorney Richard Doren asking the questions.
Similar to the previous hearings, the defendant's lawyer first approached the subject feigning no previous knowledge and asked Grant to walk him and the judge through the specifics of SDKs and APIs as part of the development process in a game company.
Then Doren jumped straight to the development which had fractured the ones amicable relationship between the two gaming giants – the inclusion a third-party processing provider, which saw Epic Games' banned from the iOS Store for violating its policies.
Doren proceeded by stressing how important integrity is and how that “backdoor” Epic left in its game on the iOS Store essentially violated that integrity. He proceeded to cite Epic Games' own zero-tolerance policy on cheaters and brought in his next punch stating that Grant was not being honest at the time of developing the fix.
“Let’s talk about honesty. You knew you were being dishonest, didn’t you? You knew you were acting without integrity, weren’t you,” Doren carried on. Grant simply replied that he was confused by the attorney's actions and conclusion.
A Sony Thread and All Other Parties Involved
Doren continued by trying to draw parallels between Epic Games own actions and commitments and how they were the opposite of what the company did in the case with Apple.
For example, Doren cited a letter sent to Sony by Epic Games chief executive Tim Sweeney who asked the company to reconsider its ban on cross-platform play, which Sweeney said was “breaking friendships,” not allowing players to connect. Sony simply decided to charge a cross-play fee.
He further argued that Epic had knowingly provoked Apple to suspend support for Fortnite iOS. The trial is ongoing and it may continue through May 24.
