The Apple vs Epic Games trial started this week, and the results are sure to shake the world of technology

Apple's App Store business model is at stake Epic claims that Apple is violating antitrust laws (among other things) by not letting developers make in-game payments through iOS apps without having apple cut 30 percent of its revenue

Apple says the 30% reduction in App Store revenue is in line with standard revenue-sharing arrangements at other digital stores, including Steam and the Google Play Store

The iPhone maker also opposes Epic's claim that Apple has a monopoly on the majority of smartphone users by claiming that the App Store faces competition from other smartphone and console platforms Epic has quietly updated Fortnite for ios, adding an option for players to buy in-game currency directly from Epic compared to the cost of buying currency through apple's payment system

Apple responded by kicking Fortnite out of the app Store, and Epic's lawyers got to work together on the ongoing lawsuit

We'll have to wait to see who wins, but in the meantime, Apple and Epic each submitted pre-trial fact-finding results in more than 300 pages of separate documents, so each company's business

both documents are now available onlineYou can read Epic's here and Apple's here To save your time, we've pulled together some of the juicy insights below

1 (and published by Bloomberg) in a 2011 email from Honcho Phil Schiller, head of the App Store, to Steve Jobs and Eddy Cue, suggesting that the company plans a 30 percent cut to stay competitive with other markets

"Do we think the 70/30 split will last forever?" Although I am a loyal supporter of the 70/30 splitI don't think 70/30 will lastI think we'll see enough challenges one day to want to tweak the model from another platform or web-based solution," Schiller wrote

"If we make more than利益1 billion a year of profit from the App Store," he added, "if we can maintain a実行1 billion annual run rate, it's enough to think of a model that ratchets down from 70/30 to 75/25 or even 80/20""

In the decade between, Apple has adjusted its take on App Store revenue in isolated regions, most notably in apps from developers who have made less thanク15 million in the App Store

in 2015, Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney emailed Apple CEO Tim Cook with "iOS as an open platform" in the subject line It was a great experience

This was 2 weeks after Apple's WWDC event, during which Epic representatives demonstrated Fortnite (which was still in development at the time) on iOS and talked about how Apple's Metal API made it possible

"We should think about separating the curation of the Ios App Store from compliance reviews and app distribution" Sweeney writes

"Compliance Review frees iOS from malware, and open distribution combines the best aspects of the App Store with the best aspects of the open platform" It is very positive

The day after receiving the email, Tim Cook apparently forwarded it to Phil Schiller and Eddie Cue in one sentence: "This is the man who was in one of our rehearsals

According to The Verge, further emails discovered during the pre-trial process were not found in that first email" It suggests that Sweeney didn't give up after nothing (probably) came from him In an email from March 2018, Sweeney asked Epic co-founder Mark Rein to set up a 30-minute meeting with Apple executive Greg Joswiak to talk about "the potential for iOS and future Apple things to work as an open platform"

Rein later responded that he had talked to Apple's Tim Kirby about the meeting settings, and Kirby said, "It doesn't mean they're going anywhere, but someone who listens and doesn't shoot down like Phil Schiller, he says they've had an internal discussion about this kind of thing"

At the end of 2018, Epic launched its own digital store, the Epic Games Store, against the backdrop of the great success of Fortnite The company has since sought to expand the store's customer base by rotating free games every month to those with Epic Games Store accounts

Epic pays the developers of these games a flat fee for the privilege Now, thanks to pre-trial documentation, we feel how much money Epic is willing to lose to attract customers to its storefront

According to apple's pre-trial application, which aims to support claims that Epic itself is anti-competitive by providing funding from the more profitable part of the business to the unprofitable Epic Games store, Epic "lost about11 billion in 2019E8,100 million in EGS" and "in 2020E27,300 million in EGS" It is predicted to lose the dollar

In addition, Apple claims that "Epic projects will lose aboutEpic1 billion in 2021" and "at best, Epic does not expect EGS to achieve cumulative gross profit by 2027"

If you want a clear sense of how much Epic pays for each free game it gives out, gaming industry veteran Simon Carless says that each game

an incomplete list shows payments to developers out of more than 100 free games ever offered on the Epic Games Store" It's a good idea They are worth more than数万100 million (from開発者3 million in all 150 of Batman Arkham games to developer Rocksteady,Unknown140 million in underwater survival game Subnautica to Unknown Worlds Entertainment), tens of thousands of dollars (ド4500 million in Six Foot game Rime,Super5000 million in Team Meat's Super Meat Boy), and KOCH Media's Metro: In the case of 2033Redux it ranges to zero, and the PC version has been available exclusively on the Epic Games Store for 1 year

Epic poured a lot of resources into this battle Most notably, it seeks to establish itself as the champion of the Little Guy by involving the Fortnite fanbase with the bizarre #FreeFortnite marketing campaign

Company chief Tim Sweeney also said the fight was primarily aimed at opening up Apple's closed App Store ecosystem for all developers He has repeatedly taken to Twitter to claim that it is about making a difference

On multiple occasions, he said, "Epic will not seek or accept any special deal just for itself

However, when Sweeney was asked by Apple's lawyers this week whether Epic pay would accept a special deal that would allow Apple to make smaller reductions than other developers of the App Store, Sweeney said, "Yes, I would have"

This suggests that most of Epic's developer marketing campaigns for this trial were marketing

These pre-trial findings reveal that Epic tried to marshal a multifaceted campaign against Apple and its 30% App Store reduction last year, which almost got Xbox maker Microsoft to add some fuel to the fire

Microsoft recently removed the Xbox Live Gold membership payment requirement to actually play free-to-play xbox games and access multiplayer

Fortnite is one of the free-to-play games on that list 1 Thanks to the pre-trial fact-finding process, Epic's Tim Sweeney sent an email to Xbox Chief Phil Spencer last summer to ask Microsoft to change

, just as Epic was choosing to fight Apple, "to talk optimistically about the potential for subscription-free multiplayer on Xbox"If this comes, consider the timing of the program to support the launch of Fortnite Season 8 on 27/14," Sweeney wrote

"Epic has a specific plan for August that provides a special opportunity to highlight the value proposition of consoles and PCs as opposed to mobile platforms

Spencer the next day acknowledged Sweeney's discussion on several issues, including "F2P Out of Gold (we'll get there and I want to be a partner with you)"

"fully understood"Sweeney replied "I collect a lot of things are going on at Microsoft recently Anyway, you will enjoy the upcoming fireworks show"

Epic rolled out its own separate payment scheme for the iOS version of Fortnite later that month by May 8 In 2020/1/13, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store and started this whole battle

Now we can see that Epic was making a concerted effort to make Fortnite play completely free on Xbox (as it was already on PlayStation) in time to choose to fight Apple