Valve will have to produce Steam information in Epic Games suit, rules judge

Valve, developer of the PC and macOS gaming platform Steam will have to provide some information requested by Apple in its lawsuit against Epic Games, after previously refusing to do so.

A discovery hearing on the matter took place remotely on Wednesday, as narrated by Florian Mueller. Following some audio issues, Judge Thomas S. Hixson told Valve that the definition of the relevant market in question was still up for grabs, as Valve tried to argue it didn't operate in the market at stake in Epic's lawsuit:

Counsel for Valve raised concerns at the hearing over disclosing the sales data of hundreds of games on Steam and reiterated the massive burden the requested data from Apple would place on the relatively small company. Valve noted that aggregated information about historical pricing data was confidential and that it didn't want to disclose information to Epic, its direct competitor in the PC gaming sphere. Valve also spoke about how the PC gaming market was much more than just Steam, and that PC games were available elsewhere, such as on Amazon or in brick-and-mortar retails outlets like GameStop.

Speaking to the subpoenas, Judge Hixson noted Valve wasn't the only company on the receiving end. As noted by Law360, he told Valve that Apple "has salted the earth with subpoenas".

Apple responded by stating that Epic Games' own expert reports mentioned Valve and claimed that aggregate and per-title information would be useful in the case. So what is the purpose of this data? Mueller explains:

Apple is trying to show that even after Epic Games store entered the PC gaming market, Valve did not lower its 30% rate of commission on Steam sales, a clear argument against the idea that Apple charges its 30% fee because of a lack of competition in the market.

Common ground was reached in the end, and Mueller notes Valve "will have to provide some data" for a shorter period by March 8. It will have a further 30 days to produce more in-depth information on 436 specific titles that are listed on both Steam and the Epic Games store.

As iMore first reported last week, Valve originally refused a subpoena from Apple stating: "Somehow, in a dispute over mobile apps, a maker of PC games that does not compete in the mobile market or sell "apps" is being portrayed as a key figure. It's not. The extensive and highly confidential information Apple demands about a subset of the PC games available on Steam does not show the size or parameters of the relevant market and would be massively burdensome to pull together. Apple's demands for further production should be rejected."