Epic vs. Apple In-Person Trial Will Use Zoom App, Court Says

"Fortnite" developer Epic Games and tech giant Apple have now concluded the in-person legal trial that will be conducted on Zoom starting May 3.

The conflict emerged in August last year when Epic filed a lawsuit against the Cupertino-based company.

Epic Vs Apple: The Legal Trial to Happen in Zoom

In a report by Screen Rant, the judges of the case have confirmed that the trial was now finalized to begin two months from now. Looking back at what happened previously, Epic Games and Apple were struggling to fix the ties that once bound them.

If you could remember, Apple has been acquiring its profit through the percentage from the in-app purchases on its iOS devices, before "Fornite" became unavailable to the said devices last summer.

The seen root of the problem was Epic Games' move to disobey the terms of service that Apple imposed previously when the former company said that it would now reduce the V-Bucks, the in-game currency in "Fortnite."

However, this meant that Apple will lose a portion of the shares that it gets from the purchases in the App store. Since the players of the game will now buy the currency directly to the videogame developer, the stakes of the percentage only became higher for Apple.

In response to this, Apple decided to delete "Fornite" from the store. Epic Games, on the other hand, seemed to expect this blunt move by the tech company. After the game was removed, a parody about the game involving the 1984 commercial of Apple circulated the social media.

The "Fortnite" players took the opportunity to tag the video with a #FreeFortnite hashtag. They did that in hopes of redeeming the game that they could play. The legal battle has not yet reached its peak, so this call to action is for Apple to free the shooting game.

According to a report by MacRumors, the Northern District of California Judge Yvonne Gonzales, together with the lawyer of the two companies have agreed to stage the meeting in-person. The reliance on the digital meeting could be set aside here, as a result.

However, according to Gonzales, the trial could last for two to three weeks, yet the gaming company wanted it to prolong, particularly from four to five weeks in duration.

Read Also: Epic Games Announces Fortnite X Batman Crossover Event

The COVID-19 pandemic also posed a big challenge in this legal trial, so it is expected that those who will attend physically should observe proper social distancing. Some involved witnesses who have health problems will still be occupied by the other representatives.

Furthermore, the judge said that the two companies should undergo strict quarantine for two weeks after the trial. For the final verdict, it will be held in a Zoom app.

Looking Back at Epic and Apple in the Recent Years

Over the past years, the Epic Game Store was made by the developers so players could buy them on gaming consoles like PC for a reduced value. This is because buying games on Steam will be much costly.

On the other hand, Apple has been guarding the store when video games are involved. Previously, the cloud gaming feature of the Xbox Game Pass was not allowed by the company on mobile devices, so you can only use it when accessing web browsers.

The legal conflict has been in the notion of competition of digital stores and the application's lower cost. This also involves that developers generate profit through video game sales.

This article is owned by Tech Times.

Written by Joen Coronel