Epic Games founder and majority stakeholder Tim Sweeney took to Twitter to congratulate Microsoft for overtaking Apple as the world’s most valuable company by market value. He also criticized Apple and Google in the same tweet.
Congratulations to Microsoft on a well-deserved honor. From Bill Gates to Steve Ballmer to Satya Nadella, they have a 50-year track record of supporting and empowering developers to do great work, while respecting developer and user freedom. A sharp contrast to Apple and Google.
That’s not unexpected, given Epic’s current lawsuits against both companies. As a reminder, Tim Sweeney is attempting to get Apple and Google to open up their environments to allow third-party stores and payments, instead of forcing game and app developers to give them a sizable cut on any single microtransaction on iOS and Android.
Last month, Epic won a landmark ruling against Google. A California jury found the Android company guilty of monopoly on all counts; the court is expected to start discussing remedies at some point this month. Tim Sweeney didn’t have as much luck with the Apple lawsuit, but he isn’t giving up on that front either, as Epic filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.
It’s worth remembering that Sweeney didn’t always feel this way about Microsoft, though. Nearly eight years ago, the Epic founder went down hard on Microsoft’s purported attempt to ‘lock down the consumer PC ecosystem’ with the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), asking developers to oppose this initiative. The following day, he admitted there was no proof of an ‘evil plan’ on Microsoft’s behalf. A few weeks later, after Microsoft’s yearly Build event, he remained unconvinced, stating they hadn’t committed to openness for UWP.
In July 2016, Sweeney praised Microsoft for its decision to bring Xbox games to PC, though he was still a bit wary of Windows. Fast forward to May 2019, however, and he had completely changed his tune:
Epic is thrilled with everything Microsoft is doing and we feel that we couldn’t be happier with the directions they’ve taken on all their platforms. There’s HoloLens, now an open platform. There’s Windows, a completely open platform. And Microsoft is launching new Microsoft services of all sorts through the Windows Store. And then there’s also Microsoft Game Pass. And those are existing side by side with everybody else’s services. And it’s a really healthy ecosystem, which everybody participates in. Epic is completely satisfied that their economic models are fair. Epic loves Microsoft. Epic hearts Microsoft.
