Epic Games has spent nearly $1 billion challenging Apple and Google

Epic Games' costly antitrust lawsuits against Google and Apple could have reached nearly $1 billion in total spending and missed Fortnite revenues, company CEO Tim Sweeney says.

2

Epic's lawsuits against Google and Apple took years before decisions were made, and throughout that time, Epic Games spent hundreds of millions of dollars in expensive court and lawyer fees. Fortnite was also removed from both the Google Play and App Store, which significantly impacted Epic's revenues throughout the last few years--albeit less so on Android because Google allows side-loading of apps. Fortnite only just now made its way back on iOS, but only in the European Union thanks to the EU's new Digital Markets Act.

So that leads us to an interesting question: How much has Epic spent on these lawsuits? Epic Games remains one of the biggest games companies on the planet thanks to its stable of highly popular live games (multiple chart-topping Fortnite games, Rocket League, Fall Guys), and has also received multi-billion-dollar investments from companies like Sony, Disney, and even Tencent, who owns around 40% of the company.

In a recent interview with Stephen Totilo's Game File, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney actually answered this question. All told, the lawsuits could have cost the company nearly $1 billion, which is about 5% of Fortnite's total revenues.

"If we spent a billion dollars so far, that's a small price to pay for the future freedom of our company and of all the others who want to participate in the market," Sweeney told Game File.

Sweeney went on to say that Epic may have missed out on around $1 billion in lost microtransaction earnings due to Fortnite being off of iOS for four years.

Even still, Sweeney is highly optimistic: "We see the brightest days for Epic and the game industry as a whole, as coming in the future."