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Epic’s lawsuit with Apple is fairly notorious at this point after Apple pulled Fortnite from the App Store several years ago, but according to Epic CEO TIM Sweeney, the lawsuit wasn’t just about Fortnite, it was also about not letting “gatekeepers Apple and Google” control the future of the metaverse by blocking progress.
This revelation comes from a recent interview that Sweeney had with Matthew Ball back on July 16. In the interview, Sweeney says “It is vitally important that we not allow the gatekeepers, Apple and Google, to block progress on the metaverse as they block progress on the web and block progress in computing in general.” With regard to blocking progress on the web and computing, Sweeney is referencing Apple and Google’s hold on what is allowed in the company’s respective stores.
Specifically, Apple and Google were accused by Sweeney and Epic of intentionally blocking off developers from allowing users to make in-app payments that didn’t use the App Store or Google Play Store payment systems. Thus forcing developers to pay the associated fees. In its lawsuit against Google, this eventually led to a case where it was ruled that Google had a monopoly with the Play Store. Following that case, Sweeney vowed that Epic would be going back for Apple.
In a more recent case against Apple, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rodgers ordered Apple to deliver all documents relating to its anti-trust case with Epic. Starting a process that would see Apple required to revise its App Store policies.
Epic CEO says the Apple lawsuit was also about his vision for the metaverse
The way Sweeney sees it, Apple and Google can’t be allowed to block progress in the metaverse the way they do with the App Store and Google Play Store. He tells Ball that neither company can be allowed to lay the ground rules for payments made in the metaverse. As doing so would essentially give Apple and Google the majority of profits due to high front-end taxes that both companies would impose. Just like they do with their app stores.
“If you let Apple and Google set the ground rules for the metaverse, that tax they collect at the front end is going to constitute the far, far majority of profit that will ever be made from the metaverse,” Sweeney says.
Epic hasn’t publicly laid out any concrete plans for the metaverse yet. But it has sort of started playing with it in a sense through Fortnite. Once merely a third-person shooter game, Fortnite now spawns online social activities like online concerts. Where players can go and interact with other players while watching live performances from entertainers via Fortnite avatars. The most recent of these experiences revolved around Metallica. Epic then tied in special in-game items themed after the band.
It’s clear that Sweeney doesn’t want Apple or Google to be able to control the lion’s share of the sort of revenue this type of thing could drive for metaverse-related games.