Valve, at the request of Apple, will be required to disclose Steam sales. This is reported by the iMore edition with reference to analyst Florian Mueller (Florian Mueller).
The classified information disclosure stems from Epic Games' lawsuit against Apple, in which it accused the IT giant of a monopoly on the app market. According to Apple representatives, the data from the Steam service will help to fully show the situation in the computer games market, which Epic Games operates on. Valve previously refused to provide relevant information at the request of Apple, but on February 24, Judge Thomas S. Hixson said the company would have to disclose some data.
Apple officials said in court that the proceedings needed information about titles on Steam. This is due to the fact that Epic Games in its expert reports mentions Valve as a major player in the market. Previously, Valve's lawyers rejected Apple's request and said they did not want to share aggregated information about the titles available in the service.
The message clarifies that Apple wants to get access to statistics on total annual sales on Steam, ad revenue, data on annual revenue, information about specific titles, history of price tag changes, and more. In particular, the corporation's lawyers are confident that Valve has not reduced its service fee from 30 percent. If the information is confirmed, the company will be able to refute Epic Games' thesis that Apple has set a similar fee in its stores due to lack of competition.
According to the court ruling, the first part of the data should be disclosed by March 8. Valve will then have another 30 days to provide detailed information on 436 titles.
Epic Games in mid-August 2020 accused Apple of creating a monopoly. The American company has established a monopoly and is enjoying a dominant position in the App Store distribution and in-iOS payment processing markets, according to company representatives. Apple previously removed Epic Games' flagship game, Fortnite, from the App Store.
