Friday, February 26th 2021
Apple Subpoenas Valve for Steam's Data on 346 Games
Apple and Epic Games have had quite a turbulent history of legal issues in the past year. Fortnite, the world's biggest battle royale game, got removed from the Apple store because its developer, Epic Games, had refused to comply to store rules. If a developer is listing a game on the Apple store, all in-game payments must be processed through Apple, with the company taking a 30% tax cut for it. Epic Games didn't like that idea too much, so the company just used an external system that gave players the option to pay for in-game goods using different ways. However, that represented non-compliance to Apple store guidelines, and Apple took the Fortnite game down.
Update February 26th 07:50 UTC: In thecourt hearing on Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson ordered that Apple's subpoena was considered valid. Valve's lawyers urged the judge to not force the company to produce the requested data, however, Apple's lawyers have said that the request is doable and the company is only requesting data on a few hundred games, and it could have been worse by requesting data on over 30000 games instead.
Epic Games has sued the famous fruit company over this practice, however, another big publisher is being dragged into the fight. Valve, the company behind the popular gaming platform, Steam, has just entered the fight. Apple has requested Valve to hand over information about 346 games and its user statistics, meaning the number of monthly, daily, etc. players and other useful information. This information request was made off the court and Valve has denied providing it. In the second attempt by Apple, the information requested was "very narrow" and Valve did not want to provide any more data. The response from Valve was that the company doesn't sell mobile games and has little business in the mobile world, thus making Apple's request irrelevant.
08:15 UTC: Apparently, in the court Valve stated that "Apple Has Not Shown Substantial Need For The Information It Demands", with the court hearing saying that "First, Apple argues the information it demands is necessary to calculate market size and definition. False. Apple, Google and Samsung compete with each other in the mobile app market. Valve does not compete in that market." The statement alone is noting that as Valve doesn't compete in the mobile market, the company will not enter legal disputes between the two companies and remains neutral. Requesting that much data from Valve would require too much work and Apple hasn't proved that there is any need for it, besides Apple's intentions to see the market size of games. Valve also notes that it is not a public company, and Apple's request for sales and earnings figures are illogical.
Sources:
Business Insider, Court Hearing (Valve and Apple)
Update February 26th 07:50 UTC: In thecourt hearing on Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson ordered that Apple's subpoena was considered valid. Valve's lawyers urged the judge to not force the company to produce the requested data, however, Apple's lawyers have said that the request is doable and the company is only requesting data on a few hundred games, and it could have been worse by requesting data on over 30000 games instead.
08:15 UTC: Apparently, in the court Valve stated that "Apple Has Not Shown Substantial Need For The Information It Demands", with the court hearing saying that "First, Apple argues the information it demands is necessary to calculate market size and definition. False. Apple, Google and Samsung compete with each other in the mobile app market. Valve does not compete in that market." The statement alone is noting that as Valve doesn't compete in the mobile market, the company will not enter legal disputes between the two companies and remains neutral. Requesting that much data from Valve would require too much work and Apple hasn't proved that there is any need for it, besides Apple's intentions to see the market size of games. Valve also notes that it is not a public company, and Apple's request for sales and earnings figures are illogical.
61 Comments on Apple Subpoenas Valve for Steam's Data on 346 Games
"(a) the name of each App on Steam; (b) the date range when the App was available on Steam; and (c) the price of the App and any in-app product available on Steam."
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"Apple has requested Valve to hand over information about Fortnite and its user statistics, meaning the number of monthly, daily, etc. players and other useful information."
i don't think Fortnite was ever available on steam... why would you write something like this?
Good for Valve and I hope they won't be forced by court to provide that statistics (for this court case) in future.
www.statista.com/statistics/265033/proportion-of-operating-systems-used-on-the-online-gaming-platform-steam/
All Mac OSes barely brake the 1% mark combined, I am surprised Valve even bothered to respond at all. Why is Apple dead set on killing off everything gaming related to the Mac, their behavior seems irrational. But then I remembered that now their macs run iOS apps natively and they also have this thing called Apple Arcade.
And then it occurred to me, this is simply about killing off competition on their platform so that users don't have much of a choice but use their services.
I'm not a fan of Valve or their business practices overall, but this "request" from Apple is just plain-faced lunacy, even in its heavily edited later forms.The data they requested is for all Steam sales, but yes, that would allow them to identify which Steam games sell well on Mac and are widely played by Mac users, which would in turn give them some easy targets for buying studios/exclusivity deals, making Apple Arcade more attractive while hurting their biggest competitor in Mac gaming.
Valve stands to gain absolutely nothing but trouble by getting involved in this billionaire's squabble, and both Apple and Epic are "enemies" of Valve that have directly harmed Valve's business in one way or another in the recent past.
The only way Valve is likely to comply is if they are paid (extremely well) for the data, or if they are forced to hand it over by law.
Take special note of the value of 'meta'data.
They 30% Leecher Companies..
they're all the same
Apple: Hold my beer.
Did you forget microsoft.