It's always fun watching big evil corporation duke it out, but Epic has thrown hands regarding duels with some specific companies. One of the biggest questions in the Epic Games vs Google trial is why the publisher hasn't taken Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to court over service fees similar to Google and Apple - and now we know.
Epic filed antitrust lawsuits against Apple and Google after Fortnite was removed from their storefronts during a disagreement about service fees. The Fortnite developer disagrees with the 30% fee that mobile firms take from microtransaction sales. The publisher also believes that Apple's closed ecosystem, which doesn't allow third-party app stores, is anti-competitive.
During the ongoing Epic vs Google trial, Epic's chief financial officer Randy Gelber gave a taped deposition explaining why the publisher hasn't filed a lawsuit against console makers. Gelber said that there is an inherent difference in cost structures between game consoles and mobile platforms.
"We believe those [consoles] to be competitive markets and we believe that the fee, their cost structure, is entirely different than a mobile app store," the executive said.