In a broad interview with CNN Business, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, says his company has spent months preparing its lawsuit against Apple, which is codenamed “Project Freedom”.
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Epic launched a total attack against Apple after removing Fortnite from the App Store in August, after the app implemented a direct payment method for in-app purchases. The App Store policy requires that all applications use their own system for in-app purchases, which gives Apple a 30% commission for all purchases made. Epic’s refusal to comply with the policy resulted in the application being banned from the platform.
Sweeney said in his interview that Epic “spent months” developing and preparing its lawsuit against Apple, which was launched and publicly announced just hours after the removal of Fortnite from the “App Store”.
Internally, Epic calls the process “Project Freedom”, clearly echoing the idea that the purpose of the process is to open Apple’s platforms even further to smaller developers, thereby providing them with “freedom”. Despite the focus of the process being the ‘App Store’ 30% commission policy, Sweeney says it really comes down to the idea that he believes open platforms are “the key to free markets and the future of computing”.
Developers have questioned whether the 30% commission is a fair price for developers to pay Apple, given, for example, that the “Epic Games” earned $ 1.3 billion from Fortnite purchases in 2020.
PicEpic Games had a valuation of $ 17.3 billion at the end of last year and, from a financial point of view, Sweeney says Epic has “financial independence” to conduct its lawsuit against Apple and Google, thanks in large part to the fact that “Epic Games” is not a publicly listed company.
When pressed for details about how much his lawsuit against Apple was costing Epic, Sweeney declined to respond, simply saying that it is consuming “a lot, a lot” of the company’s leadership. It is clear, however, that with millions of Apple users unable to play Fortnite on their devices, the company is probably experiencing some financial difficulties, as iOS users have generated more than $ 1.2 billion in revenue for the company. Epic since it was launched on the platform, according to Sensor Data from the tower cited by CNN Business.
In short, however, Sweeney says the struggles are worth it due to fear that the future of platforms like the App Store will be completely dominated by platform owners like Apple, and that they will not have other developers on them.
“[The companies] they will do this sector by sector and category of application by category of application until they have swallowed everything that matters. And who will be left? “Sweeney said.” A million independent developers who together earn a small percentage of revenue in the app store because these deals are too small to be attractive to be stolen. “
Finally, Sweeney addresses controversial comments he made in November, in which he said that the struggle for civil rights and Epic’s struggle for platform “freedom” are similar. The comments caused a widespread reaction and, in response, Sweeney said he believes that “it is perfectly healthy” to draw similarities between “vital causes in world history” and the struggle on application platforms.
“The point is, if you really want to make a difference, you need to resist the system,” said Sweeney in response to criticism. “I think we can learn a lot from any of humanity’s previous struggles and I think it is perfectly healthy to apply struggles from vital causes in world history to struggles over minor issues, such as software platforms.”
More recently, “Eppic Games” filed a complaint against Apple in the UK, claiming that Apple’s removal of Fortnite from the “App Store” was “illegal” and requesting that the app be reinstated. The UK complaint followed in the footsteps of Epic’s agreements in the United States and Australia. In all countries, Epic says it is not seeking compensation from Apple and is simply seeking “fair access and competition that will benefit all consumers”. The two companies are preparing to face each other in court in July this year.