Judge Says Epic Was ‘Not Honest’ During the Hearing

Here we are again, continuing the discussion on Epic Games’ continuous streak of bad luck! This time, another critical blow has been dealt with them.

Yesterday, in Apple and Epic’s legal dispute, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers criticized Epic’s actions till now, saying that the company was “not honest” with Apple when they released Fortnite’s update to bypass the existing payment system.

For those out of the loop, last month, Epic Games rolled out an update in Fortnite that allowed players to purchase V-Bucks, the game’s in-game currency, directly from the company.

The update essentially bypassed the payment system set up by both Apple and Google, which led to both of them removing the game from their respective app stores.

Because of this, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against the companies on the grounds of “Antitrust,” but was instead warned by Apple that they would remove Epic’s Developer account from their store, meaning that Epic won’t be able to develop games for iOS anymore.

Taking Apple’s side here, she stated, “You did something, you lied about it by omission, by not being forthcoming. That’s the security issue. That’s the security issue! There are a lot of people in the public who consider you guys heroes for what you guys did, but it’s still not honest.”

Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Judge

Also, the Judge remained unfazed by Epic’s arguments that Apple’s payment system amounts to illegal “tying”, a form of bundling that requires customers who want to buy a particular product to also purchase something else, while also rejecting the argument that Fortnite’s removal from the store put the company in harm’s way.

She shut it down by simply saying that the players have many more ways to play the game if they wish to.

If we’re to sum it up, it was a very bad day for Epic.

CNN reporter Brian Fung was tweeting out updates as the hearing was going on, and the tweets certainly are reflective of how bad it was for Epic.

All in all, the case is certainly not favoring Epic Games at the moment. Despite all of this, it’ll still be interesting to see how Epic tries to turn things around for the better.