A California judge has ordered Valve to comply with Apple’s recent request for financial data on more than 400 Steam titles.
Earlier this month, Apple reached out to Steam for data on annual sales of apps, IAPs and third-party products, along with details on Steam earnings.
The iPhone maker said the information would be used in its long-standing legal battle with Epic by having it calculate the “overall size of the market for Epic’s digital distribution channels.” Apple explained that it has already reached out to Samsung with a similar request, which the court ultimately found relevant to the matter.
Valve pushed back against Apple, essentially telling the company that it didn’t see how its data – coming from a completely different platform and market – would be relevant to the case.
“Somehow, in a dispute over mobile apps, a PC game maker who doesn’t compete in the mobile market or sell ‘apps’ is portrayed as a key figure,” Valve said. “It’s not.”
As reported by Kotaku, a judge has now told Valve to share the data on 436 specific titles sold through Steam as of 2017.
Judge Hixson said Valve has until mid-March to comply with the warrant, telling his legal team that “Apple has been salting the earth with subpoenas, so don’t worry, it’s not just you.”
Epic and Apple will hit the road in May 2021 to settle their legal dispute following the Fortnite maker tried to bypass the App Store platform fee using third-party payment methods – prompting Apple to stop Fortnite from its platforms.