During one of the latest sessions in the long Epic's antitrust trial against the giant Google continues, Tim Sweeney former CEO of the company, has revealed some interesting details about the past. Epic's long crusade to convince Sony to open their PlayStation to cross-play might have led them in court. That could have been an epic clash indeed.
"We were willing to fight them in court, if necessary" said Sweeney in an ongoing conversation regarding an email, dating June 2018, that the former CEO sent to Phil Rosenberg, at the time PlayStation's head of global publisher and developer relations.
As The Verge reports, the push for making platforms as open as possible that Epic took back in the day was one of the topics of discussion in the trial. The email said that Epic "prepared to pursue this course [the platforms' full interoperability] with all available resources, wherever it leads us, and for however long". Indeed, Epic was not joking around.
Then the proceedings, while Sweeney remained on the witness stand, moved on while noting that, since this exchange, Sony and Epic seemed to have collaborated successfully. Sony Corporation has become a shareholder in Epic and their Pictures company also uses Unreal Engine for many of their productions.
The former CEO was also questioned, by Epic's lawyer, on the question of shareholders and the presence of Tencent in the board. To the question if the Chinese company is in control of Epic, Sweeney said that is not the case and he was, instead, "the controlling shareholder of Epic."
The trial is still ongoing with more witnesses going to be called to the stand. But, we are definitely seeing Epic showing their muscles, even in front of a giant like Google. What a shame the Epic store still doesn't seem to make them any money...