Valve Refuses to Give Apple Steam Data Against Epic Games
Valve rejected a request from Apple for Steam data. These would have helped in the fight between the Californian company and Epic Games. However, the platform's owner believes that Apple's demands are by no means as modest as the company portrays.
The war between Epic Games and Apple seems to be gaining momentum. Tim Sweeney's company has long since found allies in the fight (including Spotify) and constantly reports on its moves in the matter. However, Apple has not been idle either. The company apparently tried to involve Valve in the conflict through an unusual request (or rather demand).
The backstory of the case is revealed in a document (found by, among others, PC Gamer), which was sent to a Californian court. According to the document, Apple filed a subpoena in November, demanding that Valve hand over some "minor" information about Steam. The Cupertino-based company wanted data on total sales on Valve's store (including in-game transactions and products purchased outside of Steam) and its revenue. Apple argued that Steam is the largest such store on the market, and a direct competitor to Epic Games. So the data would be invaluable in a court battle.
However, Valve has not granted the request, despite several meetings and conferences with Apple. Gabe Newell's company shared some documents but refused to comply with all requests. Just to provide the data mentioned above would require a lot of time and money, if only due to the need to collect information from many unrelated databases. Valve does not store relevant statistics and the Californian giant does not intend to reimburse Gabe Newell's company for the costs of the process.
Meanwhile, the subpoena contained yet another "request". At number 32, Apple demanded a list of all positions available on Steam, as well as data on the time frame in which the titles were available on the store, as well as prices of both games and microtransactions. This was later narrowed down to 436 positions also available on Epic Games Store, but - according to Valve - the request is nevertheless anything but "minor".
Valve also questioned whether the data requested by Apple would actually be useful in the proceedings. For example, Steam does not compete on mobile platforms and does not have Fortnite in its catalog, which is where Apple's war with Epic Games began. Valve also points out that Apple's request would require confidential information legally owned by third parties. For these reasons, Steam's owner is demanding that Apple's demands be rejected.
