Featured Image Credit: Epic Games
It seems that Epic Games' Tim Sweeney isn't just opening up old wounds, but slicing them wide open and dumping a whole bag of salt in there when it comes to Apple. In case you missed it, Apple just had its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which was something of a special occasion as Tim Cook made his farewell speech before transitioning into his new role as executive chairman of Apple's board of directors.
Even though we didn't get the much-rumored folding iPhone Ultra reveal, the main event was the long-awaited reveal of the revamped Siri AI. That came with its own detractors, and among them is Tim Sweeney. By the looks of it, the fraught Epic Games, Inc. v. Apple Inc. lawsuit is still a little raw.
There were already complaints that it took two years from Apple announcing a more intelligent Siri to its release, with Apple even being forced to pay $250 million to disgruntled customers who bought certain iPhone 15 or iPhone 16 models.
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The WWDC keynote included Apple's SVP of engineering, Craig Federighi, reiterating that Siri AI is currently in beta for developers and will reach consumers 'this fall'. Unfortunately, that's not for all consumers.
Again teaching us that patience is a virtue, Siri AI is being stalled in the European Union and China. Apple still has some regulatory hurdles to overcome, but after we experienced the same delay for Apple Intelligence in these regions, most hoped we'd sorted this by now.
In an official announcement, Apple said: "Unfortunately, due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple will not be able to ship Siri AI in the European Union with the release of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. Over the past several months, EU regulators did not accept any of Apple’s proposed solutions to bring Siri AI to the EU while safely supporting other virtual assistants."
Although many complained that the EU is overregulated, and sided with Apple amid complaints that the fault lies with various governments, Tim Sweeney doesn't agree. Taking to X, the Epic boss mused: "Same old lie Apple told during Epic v Apple, which they lost, and were later found in contempt of court on, with a criminal referral."
Taking particular issue with how Apple does business while referring back to Epic's 'epic' legal battle with the tech giant, Sweeney added: "iPhone would be MUCH better if AI assistants could compete in a free market, rather than locking out competitors and paywalling what’s left."
Back in 2021, the pair went head-to-head in court after Epic Games clapped back at Apple's 30% cut of purchases made in the App Store. After Epic launched its own storefront to compete, Apple promptly gave it the boot, and we were left without Fortnite on mobile in the USA for nearly five years.
Not everyone was on Sweeney’s side, as one person replied: "Nonsense, Ford isn’t allowed to sell inside Chevrolet dealerships and Target can’t sell its shit in Walmart. The free market is build your own phone!
Another shared Sweeney's post and added: "Tell me you don’t know what a free market is without telling me you don’t know what a free market is."
A third agreed with him and concluded: "I think it’s a mix of a psy-op to make the EU soften up to these corps, and the fact that they only manage to get these half-baked features ready way too close to release, so they don't even try to address things like being anti-competitive.
"When they release features this way, they make sure to create this FOMO feeling among consumers and publicly 'shame' the EU for it. Then write a piece blaming the EU for the delays, but for China they're just obeying the local laws."
In terms of who 'won' the Epic v Apple case, the latter won on nine of ten counts, although Epic was victorious on a major count of 'anti-steering' and won the right to direct players to external payments.
