In a recent interview with NPR, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, whose company created the megapopular game Fortnite explained why he chose to launch a legal campaign against tech giants Apple and Google. According to Sweeney, the Big Tech Masters of the Universe “exploit” developers with the singular interest of furthering their “monopoly.”
In a recent interview with NPR, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney explains why his company chose to wage war with Apple and Google. The developer of the popular Fortnite video game entered a legal battle with the tech giants last month over the 30 percent fee that they charge on purchases made in their mobile app stores.
“It’s not just Epic being exploited by Apple, but it’s every developer who goes along with that scheme colluding with Apple and Google to further their monopoly,” Sweeney said in the interview with NPR. “These stores are making a lot more money from creative works than the creators.”
Sweeney discussed why other developers haven’t taken issue with the 30 percent fees stating: “Everybody doesn’t have a great incentive to challenge Apple and Google’s 30% because they want to be the next bastard to charge 30%.”
Apple and Google have taken issue with Sweeney’s characterization stating that they have long charged the 30 percent fee for in-app purchases and the commission supports technical staff who make sure apps on iOS and Android are safe.
Sweeney, who himself is a veteran software engineer, called the justification offensive, stating: “Every Apple engineer who works on these services and ensures that iPhone is the most secure platform in the world has got to deeply resent the business guys for taking credit and claiming that their store monopoly is the reason why the platform is secure. It’s just not true.”
In a recent legal filing, Apple started that Sweeney is positioning Epic Games as a “modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality, it is a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing.” Apple has pointed out that Sweeney’s company broke Apple’s app store rules by adding a secondary payment method into its Fornite iOS app which resulted in the app being removed from Apple’s app store.
In an email sent at 2:00 a.m. on the day that the app was removed from the app store, Sweeney told tech executives including Apple CEO Tim Cook his plans to take legal action, stating: “We choose to follow this path in the firm belief that history and law are on our side.”
Listen to the full interview at NPR here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com