Apple subpoenaed Steam for info it says will help with its ongoing legal battle with Epic Games

(Image credit: Epic Games)

Apple has subpoenaed Epic Games competitor Steam in a bid to gather information that it says will help with its ongoing legal battle with Epic Games.

The subpoena – which was disclosed via a joint discovery letter that detailed Valve's push back at the demand – was made on the grounds that Steam "is a direct competitor to the Epic Games Store".

However, despite Epic's insistence that the request "does not raise risk of any competitive harm", Valve says it had "already produced documents regarding its revenue share, competition with Epic, Steam distribution contracts, and other documents" and didn't believe it was necessary to disclose "six years’ worth of PC game and item sales for hundreds of third-party video games, then produce a massive amount of confidential information about these games and Valve’s revenues" (thanks, PC Gamer).

Consequently, although Apple and Valve have reportedly "met and conferred telephonically and exchanged correspondence in a good faith effort to resolve outstanding disputes", "the Parties have been unable to reach an agreement".

It's now up to the court to decide what, and how much, information Valve should be compelled to share.

If you need to catch up on the latest events with the court case, the lawsuits and legal filings between Apple and Epic Games look to be finally nearing a conclusion, with a trial set for May 2021.

As we explain on our full rundown of the clash, the past few months have certainly been interesting. There have multiple lawsuits from both Apple and Epic Games, and it all started over the circumvention of Apple's 30 per cent transaction fee on the App Store.

This entire saga kicked off on August 13, when Epic Games introduced an update to Fortnite on iOS and Android devices. This update gave players the option to purchase V-Bucks directly from Epic Games themselves, instead of going through the App Store on iOS devices, and the Google Play Store on Android devices. Later that same day, Apple immediately delisted Fortnite from the App Store, and shortly thereafter, Google followed suit by removing the game from the Google Play Store, too.

Given the ban prohibits 116 million players from accessing the game Apple devices, Epic Games hit back by taking the matter to court.

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.