SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Apple’s COO Tim Cook will reportedly testify on Friday during the last phase of the civil lawsuit filed by video game manufacturer Epic Games against the tech giant over their mobile app store commissions.
Apple’s lawyers had previously accused Epic of enabling users to access “unspeakable” and “objectionable” sexual content through the gaming company’s app store.
While the lawsuit is primarily an anti-trust case designed to examine if Apple can require a 30% cut of all sales in its app store, and over their terms of service decisions, Apple’s lawyers changed the conversation to allege that Epic Games’ presence in the app store would enable people to access “sexualized” content.
Apple has consistently attempted to switch the attention of the public from the anti-trust nature of the original lawsuit in a salacious direction. Their attorneys even brought up during the trial the humanoid banana character Peely, featured in Epic’s blockbuster phenomenon “Fortnite.”
Enter ‘Peely’
According to tech news site The Verge, one of Apple’s attorneys used an image of Peely in a tuxedo when questioning Matthew Weissinger, Epic’s VP of Marketing, because “we thought it better to go with the suit than the naked banana, since we are in federal court this morning.”
Epic’s own attorney revisited the Peely issue later that day and asked Weissinger, “If we could just put on the screen a picture of Peely — is there anything inappropriate about Peely without clothes?”
To which Weissinger replied, “It’s just a banana, ma’am.”
A more serious problem for Epic could be its relationship to Itch.io. Founded in 2013 as a marketplace for indie games, Itch.io is open to more types of games than other platforms and as a result has become home to hundreds of sexually-oriented video games. As of May 2021, there are over 400 games in Itch.io’s marketplace that are tagged as “porn.”
‘Unspeakable’ Games
As a third-party app, Itch.io and its offerings are not reviewed by Epic and Apple has used this as an opportunity to connect Epic’s core business to Itch.io’s “unspeakable” games, including games with sensational names like “Sisterly Lust.”
“The description of that game includes a list of fetishes which include many words that are not appropriate for us to speak in federal courts,” noted one of Apple’s lawyers during the trial.
Apple’s legal tactic appears to be an attempt to pressure U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to decide whether to force a private business into selling material they consider objectionable, diverting attention from the anti-trust allegations against them.
Cook, the Associated Press reported today, “will be taking the stand as Apple prepares to wrap its case before the two sides make their closing arguments and answer Judge Rogers’ questions about the evidence on Monday.”