Valve has been ordered to give Apple information on 436 Steam games as part of the Epic Games legal case

Valve, the creators of the popular Steam game distribution platform, will be forced to hand over to Apple the aggregate historical sales, pricing and other information on 436 games hosted in the store, as part of the Apple vs. Antitrust case. Epic Games.

As reported in a report protected by payments from Law360, during a virtual discovery hearing on Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson ordered that Apple’s subpoena for Valve’s data be valid, however, noting that Apple has “salted the ground with subpoenas. “, telling Valve that” don’t worry it’s not just you “. Apple’s original citation requested Valve data on Steam dating from 2015, but the judge’s ruling will only require Valve to produce limited data in 2017.

PEpic Games‌ has a strong legal battle with Apple over the App Store and claims that the Cupertino-based tech giant is shutting developers into their ecosystem and forcing them to pay a “30% tax” on in-app purchases. Apple’s citation for Valve data is one of many that Apple has filed in an attempt to prove that the “App Store” as a software distribution platform is no different from others.

Gavin W. Stok, a lawyer who represented Valve at the hearing, urged Judge Hixson to dismiss the subpoena and not force his company to produce the data. Stok says Valve is run by a small team and that collecting all the data Apple requests would require it to “dedicate multiple employees to working full time” and that it would not be able to ensure that the request could be met. time.

Apple’s attorney, Jay P. Srinivasan, says the request is feasible and notes that Apple may have requested data on the Steam store’s 30,000 games, but that it only requests data on 436 games. Apple continued to defend its citation, calling Valve a “featured player” in the full image of relevant markets such as the “App Store.”

Faced with what is expected to be a court hearing scheduled for July 2021 between Apple and “Epic Games,” Valve has until mid-March to produce the data. We have contacted Valve to comment on the judge’s decision and will update the page once we have further news.