As the monumental Epic Games-versus- Apple trial unfolds, key revelations are starting to come to light. The two megapowers are finally squaring off over Apple's treatment of app developers, a fight that began when Apple removed Fortnite and other Epic apps from the App Store last year. The long trial has only just begun, but things are already getting heating up.
There's a lot to process already, and it's only going to get more complicated over the next three weeks or so. Here are all of the key takeaways from the trial so far.
The opening day was a mess
On the first day of the trial, more than 200 people dialed into the public call line and screamed for around 20 minutes, as court clerks attempted to mute the callers. According to The Verge, many of the callers were kids who screamed "free Fortnite" and "bring back Fortnite on mobile, please judge." The result was a chaotic mess, but at 11:30 a.m. ET, court officials managed to bring order in the court.
This comes after Apple removed Fortnite from iOS due to Epic Games' implementing its own in-game purchase system that bypassed the App Store. In the wake of Apple's decision, Epic began rolling out a "Free Fortnite " marketing campaign, which became a rallying cry for many players.
Epic pays extra for Fortnite crossplay on Sony platforms
In 2018, when Sony was under fire for its opposition to Fortnite crossplay, Epic Games worked to reach a solution. That solution, as revealed during the beginning of the trial, was for Epic Games to pay Sony a higher cut to bring Fortnite crossplay to PlayStation platforms.
While on the stand during the start of the trial, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney explained that Sony gets more of a cut than other platform holders for crossplay functionality.
"Sony has a policy that requires if the ratio of payments across platforms for a given PS user gets out of sync with the playtime, then we have to pay them a commission on other platform revenue," Sweeney said. "So if someone were primarily playing on PS but paying on iPhone, they'd [inaudible] compensation to Sony."
Although it's common for all platform holders involved to get a cut when Fortnite V-bucks are purchased, Sony reportedly has been getting more than others since 2018, per its contract with Epic Games.
Fortnite generated over $9B for Epic in first two years
It's not surprising that Fortnite performed well for Epic Games from 2018 to 2019. Through financial documents that were made public as part of the trial (as relayed by The Verge), we learned that Epic Games earned over $9 billion in revenue from Fortnite within its first two years on the market.
It's unclear how much of the company's profits were attributed to Fortnite within that time, but Epic Games reported profits of $5.5 billion during that two-year span. What is clear is that Epic earned more from Fortnite than any other of its video game-related businesses from 2018 and 2019. That includes the Epic Games Store, which is reportedly operating at a loss, per the documents.
Epic plans to add Samus, The Rock, other skins to Fortnite
Fortnite is known for its licensed (and original) character skins that are the driving force of the game's revenue. Since its launch, we've seen character skins for God of War's Kratos, Halo's Master Chief, Batman, The Mandalorian, and more. As part of the trial, an internal document that outlined plans for Fortnite's future was made public, and it features details about a basketball mini game and new character skins that are in the works.
Epic has evidently looked into creating skins for Samus Aran, Naruto, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, The Bride from the Kill Bill films, Snake Plissken from the Escape from New York movies, and others. The document also detailed plans for an NBA collaboration, with the aforementioned sports mini game referred to as "a Fortnite version of arcade basketball." This collaboration would also include a character skin for NBA player LeBron James.
