If you're aware of Fortnite and have an iPhone, there’s a good chance you have heard of the highly publicized case between respective creators Epic Games and Apple. A recent interview suggests that the lawsuit was intended to instead lay the groundwork for something much bigger — the metaverse.
The metaverse will be defined differently by almost any figure who aims to make one but the basic premise is that it’s a 3D online virtual space where users can interact with each other to chat but also pay for services, do online shopping, and more. Meta, the company behind Facebook and the Meta Quest line of headsets says it is “the next evolution in social connection and the successor to the mobile internet.”
In an interview with Matthew Ball, a tech entrepreneur and author, Tim Sweeney, Epic’s CEO, spoke about his vision for the metaverse. In this, he claimed that his lawsuit against Apple is tied to his vision for Epic’s metaverse.
A bigger vision?
When asked why this lawsuit was part of his metaverse plan, Sweeney tells Ball “It is vitally important that we not allow the gatekeepers, Apple and Google, to block progress on the metaverse as they block progress on the web and block progress in computing in general.”
One place Sweeney points to is Apple’s web browser, which prioritizes legacy search engines like Google over competitors. Sweeney claims this stopped other more ambitious browsers from growing, and that this, in turn, held back consumers.
As well as this, he claims that Apple’s walled-garden approach to its App Store means innovators are held back from developing. Most importantly to his argument, he believes that the likes of Apple and Google won't redistribute funds made by the metaverse to developers responsible for it. He says “If you let Apple and Google set the ground rules for the metaverse, that tax they collect at the front end is going to constitute the far, far majority of profit that will ever be made from the metaverse.“
No solid plans have been put forward for Epic Games’ idea for the metaverse yet and if Meta’s version of it is anything to go on, I won’t be holding my breath.
