As reported by Bloomberg, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California has dismissed part of the allegations of Apple against Epic Games in the legal dispute over Fortnite, V-Bucks, and the ban of the Epic Games’ creators account in iOS.
Apple alleged in a countersuit that Epic Games’ decision bypass the terms of agreement of the App Store violated the contract established when the games’ developer was granted with a creators’ account. Apple’s lawyers affirm that Epic Games committed theft against the Cupertino based company.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers reportedly told lawyers during the hearing “This is a high-stakes breach of contract and an antitrust case, and that’s all in my view”. The statement affirms that Epic Games has the upper hand in their allegations against Apple.
Gonzalez Rogers also explained why can’t Epic Games actions cannot be determined as theft. “You can’t just say [Epic’s conduct is] independently wrongful. You actually have to have facts.”
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the sentence could take place on May 2021, what Gonzalez Rogers decide may have “serious ramifications” in the video games industry, especially for Microsoft, PlayStation, and Nintendo as it was affirmed by Gonzalez Rogers.
In what it seems like a vicious retaliation against Epic Games for money, Apple has pushed to ban all Unreal Engine apps on iOS, Gonzales Rogers decided to force Apple to keep Unreal Engine on iOS as it does not only affect the video games industry but many companies unrelated to the legal dispute over V-Bucks.
Certainly, Tim Sweeney’s decision to bypass the App Store’s policies looked like he was just asking for trouble, but new information from NVIDIA may have confirmed that the CEO and founder of Epic could just be thinking in the future of gaming. Fortnite could be making its return on iOS on a much higher resolution and new features via NVIDIA’s cloud gaming platform GeForce NOW.
If Sweeney foresaw the implementation of cloud gaming via web browsers, then it’s understandable to implement an in-game purchase system for Fortnite and all of Epic Games‘ games.
Source: Bloomberg – GamesIndustry.biz
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