Ben Madilynn
Any thought that Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney might quit while he was ahead in his long-running disputes with Apple and Google went out the window earlier this week when Epic sued Google, again, and took a swing (figuratively, of course) at Samsung for good measure. Reinforcing that point, Sweeney said at the Unreal Fest in Seattle yesterday that he has no intention of easing up until Epic has claimed a clear-cut victory against everyone.
It’s been four years since Epic first picked a fight with Apple over alleged “anti-competitive restraints and monopolistic practices,” after which it quickly followed up with similar action against Google. Subsequent years of legal wrangling have seen some unexpected wins for Epic: A jury sided with Epic over Google in 2023, finding that Google “wilfully acquired or maintained monopoly power by engaging in anticompetitive conduct,” while new regulations in the European Union requires Apple to allow third-party marketplaces on iOS devices.
Epic hasn’t been entirely satisfied with the results, however. In August, Sweeney accused Apple of “malicious compliance” with the EU’s Digital Markets Act, saying Apple has made the process of installing the Epic Games Store app on iOS devices unnecessarily burdensome, and earlier this week it filed that new lawsuit against Google and Samsung over essentially the same complaint: That they’ve made the installation process such a hassle that some users just wouldn’t bother.
Speaking at the Unreal Fest, Sweeney laid out his vision for a collaborative future in online game development, in which “all companies and creators can participate together in the future as peers,” and decried Apple and Google as the big obstacles to making it happen.
“For a vibrant digital ecosystem to exist in the future we need fair competition and an end to these monopoly rent collectors,” Sweeney said. “Apple and Google have a totally broken vision for the world which is to limit what developers can do, to impose ever more restrictions to prevent things like the metaverse from happening, or to tax it to the point where they’re extracting all the profit from it.
“We’re at a point now where game development is expensive, it’s low margin, and game companies are suffering. Apple and Google make way more profit from most games than the developers make themselves while contributing nothing back. And this has to change.”
Sweeney said that when he was growing up, Apple was an open platform—he described it as “the Steve Wozniak vision for Apple, not the not the modern bleak vision of Apple”—that enabled anyone to make things and share them with the world without needing “permission” from corporations. I don’t imagine he wants to go back to a time when using a computer required knowing BASIC—at least I hope not—but it “highlights that open platforms are more fun,” he said, and also encourages more enthusiasm and innovation among users and developers alike.
Thus, his dogged determination to eliminate “gatekeepers” and end “junk fees” on digital storefronts. Sweeney hailed Epic’s “massive victory” against Google and the passage of the Digital Markets Act in the EU, and while that regulation doesn’t apply outside of Europe, “relief is on the way.”
“The UK and Japan have passed new laws and there’s major legislation in many major developing countries all around the world. And the world is changing for the better,” Sweeney said. “Though there’s much more to do, we’re going to keep fighting on until there’s an ultimate victory.”
It’s an ambitious vision, but one Sweeney seems to genuinely believe in: In the same address, he said the games industry is undergoing a “generational change” that’s blending gaming with online social experiences in unprecedented ways. Yes, that’s the metaverse, and a lot of people still aren’t sold on it (myself included) or at the very least don’t agree on what it means, so a certain amount of eye-rolling is allowed. Some, like PC Gamer online editor and rabid contrarian Fraser Brown, reject the notion outright. But given the monstrous ongoing success of Fortnite, which hit a record 110 million monthly active users over the last holiday season, and Epic’s slow, relentless grind against Apple and Google, I’m not sure I’d bet the farm against Sweeney just yet.
