Why Is Candy Crush Involved In The Epic Games Vs. Apple Court Battle?

I’m not surprised that the trial is still ongoing. Here’s a new update on the Epic Games vs. Apple lawsuit: they’re now playing Candy Crush in court. Well, sort of. When the Verge’s Elizabeth Lopatto sat in a federal court to watch a huge trial with major stakes for these two well-known companies, she wasn’t expecting it to be a crashing bore to the point that she started to slightly reflect on her life. Lopatto shares a portion of the court session when Apple’s expert witness, Lorin Hitt, was driving the point that being blocked from the App Store isn’t a huge blow to developers:

Epic attorney Yonatan Even, also in a face shield, is now doing his best to blow a hole in Hitt’s testimony. I am doing my best to follow a confusing spreadsheet that includes games that Hitt has promised are on both PC and mobile phones. Even begins by pointing out some of these games are not, in fact, available for PC. One game, Words Story, is listed as available on PC on the document, but does not say this on the developer’s website. In the Microsoft store, a “Words Story” with the same art exists, but it’s not the same developer. “Sir, this is not the same developer and not the same game, is it?” Even says. “It’s what is called a ‘fake game.’”

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Hitt said earlier that he’d identified eight games that let people buy things on the iOS web browser, and then use them in iOS apps; these are identified in the spreadsheet. Epic has complained that this process isn’t good enough — and certainly isn’t ubiquitous. Now, Even raises the “frictionless” process that Hitt had blithely testified to earlier in the day. Candy Crush Saga is the example Even chooses. We go to the website, and press “install,” where we are promptly sent to the App Store. We tab back to the website. The only possible way to play on the web is on desktop. The Facebook option for Candy Crush, too, is desktop.

“That’s part of the frictionless process you have envisioned?” Even asks, somewhat sarcastically.