'Apple and Google have a totally broken vision for the world': Epic CEO Tim Sweeney vows to 'keep fighting on until there's an ultimate victory'

Any thought that Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney might quit while he was ahead in his long-running disputes with Apple and Google went out the window earlier this week when Epic sued Google, again, and took a swing (figuratively, of course) at Samsung for good measure. Reinforcing that point, Sweeney said at the Unreal Fest in Seattle yesterday that he has no intention of easing up until Epic has claimed a clear-cut victory against everyone. 

It's been four years since Epic first picked a fight with Apple over alleged «anti-competitive restraints and monopolistic practices,» after which it quickly followed up with similar action against Google. Subsequent years of legal wrangling have seen some unexpected wins for Epic: A jury sided with Epic over Google in 2023, finding that Google «wilfully acquired or maintained monopoly power by engaging in anticompetitive conduct,» while new regulations in the European Union requires Apple to allow third-party marketplaces on iOS devices.

Epic hasn't been entirely satisfied with the results, however. In August, Sweeney accused Apple of "malicious compliance" with the EU's Digital Markets Act, saying Apple has made the process of installing the Epic Games Store app on iOS devices unnecessarily burdensome, and earlier this week it filed that new lawsuit against Google and Samsung over essentially the same complaint: That they've made the installation process such a hassle that some users just wouldn't bother.

Speaking at the Unreal Fest, Sweeney laid out his vision for a collaborative future in online game development, in which «all companies and creators can participate together in the future as peers,» and decried Apple and Google as the big obstacles to making it happen.

«For a vibrant digital ecosystem to exist in the future we need fair competition and an end to these monopoly rent collectors,» Sweeney said. «Apple and Google have a totally broken vision for the world which is to limit what developers can do, to impose ever more