Xu Yuan, a friendly courtroom reporter for MLex that I sat with regularly during the trial, managed to obtain an interview with one of the Epic v. Google jurors — who confirmed that Google’s deleted chats affected their decision.
That same juror found Tim Sweeney “very honest” and more credible than Google’s CEO.
A tidbit from my interview:
Why is Fortnite still not playable on Steam Deck?
If we only had a few more programmers. It’s the Linux problem. I love the Steam Deck hardware. Valve has done an amazing job there; I wish they would get to tens of millions of users, at which point it would actually make sense to support it.
Epic’s own Easy Anti-Cheat does support Steam Deck, though — and both Valve and Epic agreed the anti-cheat part should be a simple matter in November 2021.
An interview with Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney.
In case you’re wondering why Tim Sweeney was thanking jurors on behalf of 1 million developers... it’s part of this blog post, too.
We plan to challenge the verdict. Android and Google Play provide more choice and openness than any other major mobile platform. The trial made clear that we compete fiercely with Apple and its App Store, as well as app stores on Android devices and gaming consoles. We will continue to defend the Android business model and remain deeply committed to our users, partners, and the broader Android ecosystem. - Wilson White, VP, Government Affairs & Public Policy
That’s not surprising: a jury gave Epic a total victory today.
“Victory over Google! After 4 weeks of detailed court testimony, the California jury found against the Google Play monopoly on all counts. The Court’s work on remedies will start in January. Thanks for everyone’s support and faith! Free Fortnite!”
The jury is all smiles. “The one million game developers who couldn’t be here thank you,” says Sweeney, as they head into the elevator and down out of the courthouse.
He thanked Google’s lead attorney Glenn Pomerantz “for being very professional” and clapped Epic’s lead attorney Gary Bornstein on the back.
Attorneys for both sides will meet with the judge in the second week of January to discuss next steps.
