Tim Sweeney and Epic Games, as a whole on the PC platform, has become a bit of a punching bag.
Throw some shade at the studio while bringing light to whatever new developments the studio has, make a few jokes with low hanging fruit, and enjoy the influx of clicks and popularity for a short-lived window.
To be fair, both the man behind Epic Games and the platform on PC have made themselves an easily targetable pariah with purchasing titles that were promised for (and gained backers due to) Steam, security concerns at the beginning of the Epic Games Studio launch, and limited functionality of their PC platform, the Epic Games Store, that has users heading over to Steam to discuss titles with fellow users.
We’ve noted multiple times when notions that appeared, frankly speaking, as anti-consumer were made public from Epic. We’ve even underscored and explained the standard reasoning of Epic Games store, the 30% cut, with varied comparisons across the industry at large.
Yet there are times when the easy-sell of throwing the Epic Games founder under the bus results in wide-spread misunderstandings from those that fail to read beyond the surface and attempt to understand; this brings us to the most recent influx of apparent controversy, where Tim Sweeney likened Epic Games fight against Apple to the Civil Rights movement.
It’s a good article. Hey critics, please read what I said and tell me if it’s actually wrong: When the rules were wrongful, it was right to disobey them. That’s the comparison to the civil rights movement. pic.twitter.com/WMomQXwEjr
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) November 18, 2020
This has, as one could very well imagine, brought about a bit of fury from the public as they take this at face value.
What was attempting to be said, however, makes sense, and Tim Sweeney himself took to Twitter to attempt to face the backlash from critics to further explain the comparison.
It isn’t that Epic Games somehow is managing a fight of great import to the level of the Civil Rights movement, but more so that the reasoning of Epic Games to willingly break Apple’s TOS was because, through the eyes of Epic, the TOS that Epic agreed to was wrongful.
The comparison wasn’t to the wrongs being fought – there’s no comparison – but to the means of fighting them. The question that was directly asked was why Epic broke Apple’s rules. The answer is the principle that it’s right to disobey rules that are wrongful.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) November 18, 2020
Now, were this Epic Games standing against a prejudiced and corrupt government they could have a leg to stand on; yet they willingly accepted the TOS of Apple and then willingly broke them in an orchestrated attempt to, as we’ve discussed prior, weaponize their fanbase against Apple as thousands of young players would no longer be able to play Fortnite on their iOS devices.
Apple even offered Epic Games to come back to their platform while they suss everything out in court, and Epic Games denied it.
Overall, we’re still looking at two multi-billion dollar corporations participate in a slap-fight; a slap-fight that could have long-term consequences for the entirety of the industry, granted, but there is little in terms of actual racism within the statements that others have readily claimed. Tone-deaf, sure, but also standard fare within courtrooms as both sides of an ongoing battle will resort to anything to edge out a victory.
