Epic Lost an Eye-Watering Amount of Money Fighting Apple…

Summary

Epic Games spent hundreds of millions on Apple and Google lawsuits.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney also estimates that the company might have lost out on $1 billion in revenue due to Fortnite being banned from the iOS App Store over the past four years.

Epic Games has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on its legal battles with Apple and Google, a senior company official has revealed. However, the total cost of Epic's fight against contemporary app store policies was ostensibly much higher.

Epic sued Apple and Google in August 2020 over what it claimed was monopolistic control of their respective mobile app stores. The two lawsuits sought to challenge the app store duopoly and pave the way for alternative payment methods and app distribution avenues. The litigation against Apple failed on nine out of its ten counts, while the one against Google was more successful, with a jury ruling in favor of Epic on all 11 of its counts.

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By Charming Holiday

Epic Spent a 9-Digit Sum on Legal Battles Against Apple and Google

But all of that came at a steep price, with Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney revealing that the company has spent "hundreds of millions" on pursuing the two lawsuits. The estimate was given during a recent video conference call that the company's top brass held with reporters in the run-up to the August 16 launch of the Epic Games Store Mobile marketplace. Asked about the total cost of its app store litigation by Game File's Stephen Totilo, Sweeney remarked how Apple hit Epic with a legal bill amounting to nearly $74 million.

Epic Might Have Lost Out on $1 Billion in Revenue Over Apple Clash

But legal fees are just part of the overall equation, with Sweeney noting that there's also the matter of lost revenue resulting from Fortnite being banned from Apple's App Store for many a year. Specifically, the executive estimated that Epic possibly lost out on $1 billion in revenue due to its hit battle royale game being kept off the iOS App Store over the last four years.

Be that as it may, Sweeney said he believes the best is yet to come for Epic, especially now that Fortnite has returned to the iOS App Store, at least in the European Union. It is still unclear when the game might once again become available to iPhone and iPad users in the U.S.

Despite successfully defending itself against Epic's lawsuit on nine out of ten counts, Apple was still found guilty of anticompetitive practices in regard to how it was preventing developers from steering users toward alternative in-app payment methods that don't require the iOS App Store. The company was consequently hit with an injunction ordering it to allow developers to add links to third-party payment options in their apps. Dissatisfied with this turn of events, Apple wanted to take the Epic Games case to the Supreme Court. But the top judicial authority in the country refused to hear the case in January 2024.

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