Valve Fights Apple Subpoena For Steam Data To Use In Legal Dispute Against Epic Games

In Apple’s latest move against Epic Games, the tech giant is attempting to pull Valve into the mess with a subpoena requesting a ridiculous amount of Steam sales data to use in their ongoing legal battle.

According to the t discovery letter filed last week in the District Court of Northern California, Apple asked Valve in November 2020 to provide copies of Steam annual revenues, Steam annual earnings, and total yearly sales of apps and in-app purchases on Steam along with the name of each app, the date range of when the apps were available on the platform, as well as the price of the app and of any in-app products available on Steam. The request initially covered over 30,000 apps on Steam but has since been narrowed down to around 600.

In the letter, Valve said that they complied with the request but that they weren’t able to produce every required document because it was an overwhelming amount of work for a company that wasn’t part of the legal dispute. Valve also asked the court to quash the subpoena on grounds that the request was “too heavy a burden” and that Apple hasn’t shown “substantial need” for the documents and information they demand.

“Apple was not satisfied and demands—without offering to cover Valve’s costs, which would be significant—that Valve recreate six years’ worth of PC game and item sales for hundreds of third party video games, then produce a massive amount of confidential information about these games and Valve’s revenues,” countered Valve.

“Apple wrongly claims those requests are narrow. They are not,” added Valve. “Apple’s demands would impose an extraordinary burden on Valve to query, process and combine a massive amount of to create the documents Apple seeks—materials that Valve does not create or keep in the ordinary course of business—and with little or no value, as Valve does not compete in the mobile app market at issue.”