Wow! Just… wow! What a week for video game news it’s been. The Epic versus Apple trial kicked off this week and it turned out to be the headline generator we’d hoped for. In this week’s show, which you can check out in the video below, Eurogamer news editor Tom Phillips, reporter Emma Kent and me deliver an Epic vs Apple emails special, digging into the detail behind this unprecedented peek behind the video game industry curtain.
The trial got off to a chaotic start as Fortnite fans flooded the public call-in number – which the authorities inexplicably failed to mute. The news flooded in soon after, with revelations around Sony’s cross-play policy, Epic’s Fortnite development and Microsoft’s financials all emerging over the coming days. We even know how much Epic paid to secure Gearbox’s Borderlands 3 as a six-month PC exlcusive to the Epic Games Store. Spoilers: it was a lot.
Amid all that we have frankly hilarious emails between Epic boss Tim Sweeney and various video game executives, including Ubisoft chief Yves Guillemot and Xbox boss Phil Spencer. Best of all is an email Sweeney sent to Apple boss Tim Cook asking for some App Store change. Cook forwarded the email on to some colleagues, effectively asking: “who’s this?” Sick burn!
