You Have to Admire Apple’s Chutzpah

Apple has subpoenaed Valve as part of its ongoing Apple vs. Epic Games antitrust case. The company argued in court filings that it needed commercial data about Steam sales as part of its legal spat with Epic Games over the App Store fees and terms of business.

In court filings, Apple addresses Steam as “the dominant digital game distributor on the PC platform,” adding that Steam is “a direct competitor to the Epic Game Store.” The company aims to prove that its 30 percent cut and the App Store terms of business are on an equal footing to other software distribution platforms, such as Steam.

Steam is the largest digital distribution platform for PC gaming. In 2019, Steam offered 34,000+ games and had more than 95 million monthly active users. Customers can even play these games on Steam Machine micro-console with dedicated Steam controllers.

“It’s Not Just You”

The fact that Apple originally requested a massive amount of confidential sales, financial and other business information wasn’t lost on US Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson.

Law360 says Apple wanted Steam data dating as far back as 2015. The judge, however, has ruled that Valve only needs to show Apple newer data from 2017. Remarking that Apple has “salted the earth with subpoenas,” the judge told Valve, “Don’t worry, it’s not just you.”

The amount of Steam data that Apple originally sought from Valve is truly astounding. In its original filing, the company requested data on more than 30,000 titles—not to mention confidential information about Valve’s financial performance.

For instance, Apple demanded to see data like annual sales of games and in-app purchases, annual advertising revenues, annual Steam revenues and earnings, and so forth.

Valve Tried to Fight Back

Fired back, Valve said it shouldn’t be forced to reveal commercially-sensitive data spanning several years back, adding “Valve is not Epic, and Fortnite is not available on Steam.”

Valve has requested that Apple’s demands for further production be rejected. But the judge has now ordered that Apple’s subpoena to Valve is valid, with Apple itself arguing that the information it’s requested “does not raise the risk of any competitive harm.”

Valve has been ordered to produce the Steam data by the middle of March.