[The two companies continue to go back and forth in the antitrust lawsuit over the iOS App Store, filing briefs, complaints, depositions, motions, and memoranda; on September 16, Apple filed a response to Epic's earlier application requesting that Fortnite be returned to iOS, and Epic Apple stated that Fortnite could be returned to iOS as soon as Epic removed the in-app purchase system that triggered the lawsuit.

Notably, Apple's latest filing contains several arguments that Epic feels compelled to rebut. In its opposition brief, Apple writes that "Epic has started a fire, poured gasoline on it, and now asks this Court for immediate assistance in putting it out."

In Epic's earlier motion, Epic's removal of Fortnite was in response to Epic's challenge of Apple's monopolistic practices. retaliation," arguing that Fortnite should be reinstated immediately because their lawsuit is "relatively likely to succeed.

Perhaps most notably, however, Apple argues that Epic may have initiated the lawsuit because of Fortnite's declining popularity. From the brief: "For reasons unrelated to Epic's claims against Apple, Fortnite's popularity has declined: by July 2020, interest in Fortnite was down nearly 70% compared to October 2019. The lawsuit (and the front page headlines it generated) appear to be part of a marketing campaign designed to reinvigorate interest in Fortnite."

This claim, along with others, is intended to refute Epic's claim that it suffered reputational and financial damage from Apple's removal of Fortnite from the App store, saying that the lawsuit was essentially designed to raise Fortnite's profile ." If Epic were truly concerned about the reputational damage caused by this dispute, Apple said, "it would not be conducting such an elaborate publicity campaign." [Epic refuted this claim in a reply dated September 18, with Epic boss Tim Sweeney stating. "Epic's actual user engagement data, which reflects the actual number of users playing Fortnite (as opposed to Google search results), shows that Apple's claim that interest in Fortnite is declining is incorrect...Apple's In the period cherry-picked for Google search volume comparisons (between October 2019 and July 2020), Fortnite's daily active user count actually increased by over 39%."

Sweeney's statement for Epic is also found in Mike Schmid's statement for Apple that Epic violated its agreement with Sony by initiating PS4 cross-platform play without Sony's consent in 2018, thereby forcing Sony to provide PS4 and refutes the statement that Epic coerced Sony into allowing cross-play of Fortnite. This allegation is patently false in the public information that Sweeney states in his declaration; Epic was only marginally involved in the public pressure surrounding the 2018 Fortnite cross-platform controversy, which was generally led by Nintendo, Xbox, and the larger gaming community led the charge. That includes PC Gamer. (There was an Epic network error in 2017 that temporarily enabled cross-platform between Xbox One and PS4, but Epic quickly fixed it.)

This is all just the latest in a series of ongoing lawsuits. In recent weeks, Apple filed a countersuit against Epic seeking punitive damages. It then threatened to remove the "Sign in with Apple" login from Epic Games' account, but was put on hold indefinitely; the lawsuit is unlikely to die down as it heads to court on September 28 for an initial hearing in what will almost certainly be an increasingly acrimonious process only.

Epic Games' lawsuit against Apple is over "monopolistic practices" by a multi-trillion dollar tech giant that controls the iOS ecosystem and all access to devices. Epic Games is just a multi-billion dollar tech giant. The motion will be filed with the court on September 28.

*The lawsuit is not spicy, no matter how hard I try. Perhaps the only spicy thing about Epic vs. Epic Games is the lawsuit. Apple was when director Ridley Scott was involved.

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