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Valve ordered to give Apple info for over 400 Steam games for Epic Games lawsuit

A court has ordered that Valve must hand over Steam game info as a part of the ongoing Apple and Epic Games legal dispute.

Donovan Erskine

February 25, 2021 12:05 PM

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It’s hard to understate the impact that the ongoing feud between Apple and Epic Games has had on the surrounding gaming and tech industries. As lawsuits get thrown back and forth, some of the biggest names in gaming and tech have either stepped or been dragged into the feud in some capacity. Steam creator Valve is among the latest, as a court has ordered the company to give Apple information for over 400 Steam games.

It was just last week that we learned Apple had filed a subpoena to gain access to a large share of Steam’s sales and operation data. Unsurprisingly, Valve denied the request, stating that it was unreasonable . However, Valve will no longer have a choice, as a judge has ordered the company to provide some of the information requested by Apple.

This story comes from Law360, by way of MacRumors. This week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson ruled in favor of Apple’s subpoena against Valve. While Apple had requested info going as far back as 2015, it was ruled that Valve is only required to grant data from as early as 2017.

What’s interesting, is that according to the report, the judge made some remarks about Apple’s recent legal behavior. The article states that the judge said Apple has "salted the earth with subpoenas," and that Valve was not the only company that Apple was doing this to.

Of course, this all stems back to the ongoing legal feud between Apple and Epic Games, as the Fortnite creator launched a full-scale attack on the tech giant last year, which Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney admitted had been in the works for quite some time. There’s already been a ton of fallout from the matter, and it looks like things are still far from over.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_