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.
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.
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replyDonovan Erskine posted a new article, Valve ordered to give Apple info for over 400 Steam games for Epic Games lawsuit
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Apple was able to get a subpoena on Valve's sales data
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/02/25/valve-apple-data-request-for-epic-games-case/-
I still don’t understand how that’s relevant. There are like 20 different ways to buy games for PC
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But 18 of them give you a STEAM key
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Part of the problem is that simply nobody knows, except Valve and each individual publisher that made a deal with them.
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Agreed. Even if there was no other way to buy PC games I dont see why that gives one company the right to another companies sales data, especially when the argument appears to be "we take the same cut as everyone else". Couldn't Valve just be like ya, we take 30%.
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U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson ordered that Apple's subpoena for the data to Valve was valid, however, noted that Apple has "salted the earth with subpoenas," telling Valve "don’t worry, it’s not just you."
what a fucking shitty take. It is okay if you give over all your data, we are making everyone do it!-
You know, Valve will suffer ZERO from this, why the Perl clutch? Valve is rich, let the world see why.
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Yes, that information isn't just valuable for the lawsuit. Apple has been rumored for years to be working on a game console and the already have a game service on their platform. Knowing how much a a competitor is making from a similar service and what they charge can easily give them a competitive advantage in that space.
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See, I didn't even think of this. This argument would also seem to imply that even Apple views the differences between mobile gaming and PC/Console. I don't know. I think I am getting over a fucking cold, or the flu shot is clouding my head. Sucks sitting at work with sinus pressure and a foggy head.
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It's "pearl", not "Perl" or "perl".
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What I mean is, I don't see why they have the right to it. Just because it helps you make an argument, if the person involved isn't directly involved in the case.
It probably makes a lot more sense if you're demanding a nearby shop gives you CCTV data showing a murderer brandishing a weapon, but I'm this case it's difficult to see why a company should give up it's data because two other companies are in a tiff about transaction charges-
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I have the feeling this has something to do with key resellers. They are probably gonna subpoena Humble and others, too.
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http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=40437964#item_40437964
It's a strategy to weaken the argument that apple is being abusive in pricing-
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Epic's case hinges that Apple runs a monopoly - that monopoly being the iOS marketspace. That there are other computing devices are irrelevant to Epic's case, they want to argue that people buy an iPhone and thus are locked to that space, so being denied to operate in that space in a competitive manner is anti-trust behavior (broadly).
Apple's goal is two fold. First they are counter-suing Epic for being purposely deceptive in how they launched their suit. But in defending in the suit from Epic, they want to show that they are not a monopoly, and specifically that the marketspace should not be considerd just iOS devices but all computing devices. This thus makes sense that the subpeonas are seeking a limited (400-some) number of titles that may be on both iOS and Steam , and since there's hints there's other subpeonas out there, Apple's likely poked at MS, Sony, and Nintendo for similar numbers for games also on consoles that are also on iOS. They want to show, likely through this, that iOS is not a dominate platform for these games, and thus not a monopoly.-
I am still undecided on where I fall on this case. It is a delicate decision for the court, Their final decision could have a lot of impact. It is true that Apple App Store is not a monopoly when your view finder is zoomed out. I don't know that we should really zoom so far out though.
You said - "They want to show, likely through this, that iOS is not a dominate platform for these games, and thus not a monopoly."
Which lines up with this - The number of active players out of the 350 million registered accounts is a tough nut to crack. There are about 116 million accounts that are mobile accounts, and approximately 63% of those played Fortnite solely on iOS. That means that around 73 million users lost access to the game when the App Store removed Fortnite in August of 2020.
That said, Apple is getting a fuck ton of money from mobile games. The mobile side of the video game industry is almost 60% of the entire industry and only growing. PC and Console seem to split the remaining 40%.
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I really don't understand that argument, either. If I punch you in the nose, can I avoid prosecution if I provide evidence of other people throwing punches as well?
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Two billion dollar corps fighting over their next billion.
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Lol you guys seriously. I hope Valve's lawyers tell Apple and the moron judge to get fucked legally speaking.
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You are probably right. This comment from the Apple Lawyer just rubs me the wrong way though.
Apple's lawyer, Jay P. Srinivasan, says that the request is doable, and points out that Apple could have requested data on all 30,000 games on the Steam store, but that it instead is only requesting data on 436 games.
It is like they (Apple) are saying that Valve should be greatful that the Almighty Apple didn't want more.
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I also can't imagine how mundane it must be to work there.
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That’s a fraction of the company.
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everyone in this thread:
https://www.tvovermind.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ssunnamedjpg-c748a9_1280w-640x360.jpg -
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