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More precisely, that"s $444 million on "minimum guarantees" for games that release on the Epic Games Store but stay off of Steam for a year. A "minimum guarantee" is just another way lớn refer to lớn an advance: It means that Epic guarantees the publisher a certain amount of money whether or not their game actually sells enough to lớn cover it. For example, Epic put down $10.45 million for Control.

Apple says that Epic lost $181 million on the Epic Games Store in 2019, projected a loss of $273 million last year, & projects another loss of $139 million this year.

In its end-of-year report, Epic said that players spent $700 million on the Epic Store in 2020, but third-tiệc nhỏ game sales only accounted for $265 million of that spending. That $444 million in advances lớn third-các buổi party devs isn"t cchiến bại to being recouped, then. Some of those deals must be for exclusives releasing in the future, but according khổng lồ Apple"s learnings, Epic is going to lớn eat "at least $330 million in unrecouped costs from minimum guarantees alone" if you also consider 2019"s deals.

As for how much the Epic Games Store will have lost in total by the over of 2021, factoring in exclusives và all other expenses, projections say it"s less than $600 million. Just a bit of spending money, then.

Citing depositions from Epic Games Store VP và GM Steve sầu Allison & Epic VP of business development Joe Kreiner, Apple says that Epic lost $181 million on the Epic Games Store in 2019, projected a loss of $273 million last year, and projects another loss of $139 million this year. Added up, that"s an estimated $600 million that the Epic Games Store will need to lớn recoup before it"ll be profitable on the whole. Apple points out that Epic doesn"t think that"ll happen until 2027.

In its new filing (PDF here), Epic puts a happier face on its business plan, saying that it expects the Epic Games Store to start earning annual profits in 2023. And what Apple calls "losing money," Epic would probably hotline "investing money." This spending is all part of the plan, says Epic, và its 12 percent revenue cut will eventually be enough khổng lồ sustain the store, something it has been saying since it launched the store at the kết thúc of 2018.

Other fun things Epic và Apple have sầu to lớn say about each other

All of this shin-kicking between Epic & Apple is over the way transactions are handled on iPhones và iPads. Apple makes developers get approval lớn sell iOS applications on its App Store, and also enforces use of its payment processing system for in-phầm mềm purchases, which gives Apple a 30 percent revenue cut. Epic says that"s unfair, arguing that Apple and Google have sầu all the power when it comes to smartphones, so developers are forced to lớn pay their fees if they want khổng lồ make successful thiết bị di động apps. Epic wants to lớn accept money from Fortnite iOS players with its own payment processor, bypassing Apple"s fee (which it famously did without permission khổng lồ kichồng off this whole fight), while Apple would like to continue getting 30 percent of Fortnite"s iOS revenue, thank you very much.

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Epic called its plan to go after Apple and Google "Project Liberty."

Epic has even bigger plans than bypassing Apple"s fee in Fortnite, though. It wants to put the Epic Games Store on iPhones và sell Mobile games with its own payment system, competing with the App Store itself, và hopes US courts will rule that it would be anti-competitive sầu for Apple to lớn stop it.

Epic argues that iOS developers can"t innovate & provide the safety features they want to lớn due to Apple"s overbearing policies, và Apple brings up the Epic Games Store"s unprofitability in part lớn attachồng the idea that Epic actually does those things in the first place. "By its own admission, the Epic Games Store—two years after it launched—is still missing "critical" features," writes Apple"s lawyers (echoing large parts of Reddit).

In a mostly-redacted section, Apple calls out "significant security breaches involving EGS," possibly referring lớn a 2019 Fortnite breach. It also says that Epic"s customer support team is inferior lớn Apple"s, citing an internal gmail sent by Sweeney in which he asks "what happened with the community team" that was supposed khổng lồ offer customer service to people complaining online. "I"ve sầu seen nothing," wrote Sweeney. "Literally zero, while we"re being endlessly bombarded with claims of problems that Epic isn"t answering."

During the trial, it may also come up that Epic doesn"t force developers to use its payment processing for in-game purchases on its store. That"s true in Ubisoft games on the Epic Games Store, for instance, which have their own in-game transaction system. Apple doesn"t want the court khổng lồ think that the App Store and Epic Games Store are comparable, saying that in-ứng dụng purchases are part of the iOS platform, not just some store feature, & that the first iPhone didn"t even allow third-các buổi tiệc nhỏ apps (read: you should be thanking us!).

Across the document, Apple more or less says: Epic, your store is a bonfire that you chuchồng money into, all the gamers are mad at you, and if we"d let you run wild, you would"ve caused security breaches on our phones. You needed our App Store to lớn earn $700 million in Fortnite revenue on iOS, you ungrateful nerds!

I doubt comparisons between the Epic Games Store và App Store will be a big part of the case, in the end. Epic"s issue with Apple isn"t just that it runs a store with mandatory fees. Epic"s complaint is that Apple also makes that store và its in-tiện ích purchase system unavoidable on a huge portion of the smartphones in the world. That"s what makes it an antitrust issue, in Epic"s view.

Part of Apple"s rebuttal is that Microsoft and Sony bởi the same thing with the Xbox and PlayStation. Epic says, no, that"s not the same, because game consoles "vày not include general computing features like smartphones," aren"t very portable, và don"t connect khổng lồ cellular networks. "Smartphones are critical platforms for developers," says Epic, & since so many of them are iPhones, developers have no choice but to submit khổng lồ Apple"s rules.Apple says that"s not true, because "consumers can & do switch away from iOS devices to lớn Android devices," and lots of people play Fortnite on multiple platforms, so actually it is competitive sầu.

The companies raise many more points & counterpoints in these recent filings, which comprise about 500 pages together. For instance, Apple says, as it has before, that Epic tried to lớn negotiate a side deal with it, implying that Epic"s open platkhung evangelism is actually self-serving. Epic, meanwhile, accuses Apple of burying competitor"s apps in the App Store search.

Against my expectations, Apple"s is the more aggressive of the two documents, making it the more interesting. Here are a few more tidbits from Apple"s interpretation of the evidence:

Epic and Apple go to lớn court on May 3. Journalists won"t be allowed in the room due to Covid-19 restrictions, but there"ll be live audio. Before the trial, there will be a conference on April 21 where elements of each party"s arguments may be clarified.

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This article was updated on April 10, 2021 to lớn add more details about the filings and case.