Epic Games Addresses Google’s Suppression of Tim Sweeney: ‘I Can Freely Critique Google’s Color Scheme’

After five years of legal battles, the Epic Games vs. Google antitrust lawsuit wrapped up on March 3. The conclusion wasn’t dramatic; instead, it came with a quiet settlement that includes a clause preventing Epic Games and its CEO, Tim Sweeney, from criticizing Google’s App Store policies until 2032.

Given Sweeney’s penchant for sharing his thoughts on social media, this development sparked a wave of mockery online. Epic Games has clearly been rattled by the situation, with various sources highlighting the “muzzle” clause in the settlement. Key figures at Epic, including VP Steve Allison and the official Epic Games Newsroom account, have rushed to defend the agreement.

“Umm – no, very wrong click bait take,” Allison responded to a post about the situation. “Epic and Tim agreed to not criticize Google related to app store distribution and fees. All other topics are still on the table and criticism is fair game! Tim posted the actual language from the agreement earlier today if anyone wants to read it.”

Earlier, Sweeney did share a “partially redacted” version of the agreement. His post seemed to counter claims that Epic Games was entirely barred from criticizing Google. The term sheet specifies that Epic Games “will not advocate for further changes to the Google policies and practices that are the subject of this Term Sheet and/or the Long-Form Agreement…”

The key point that has stirred up Epic Games is that while Sweeney can’t criticize Google’s app store policies, he is free to express opinions on other matters. “Fact check here,” the Epic Games Newsroom stated in a response, “Epic and Tim agreed to not criticize Google related to app store distribution and fees. All other topics are still on the table and criticism is fair game.”

In an interview, Sweeney addressed the anti-disparagement clause directly. “We signed up for all that. We agree with all of that. We settled on that, and we’re not going to criticize it,” he said. “If we were, I’d be criticizing myself, because I agree to all of this. But I can totally say that, like if I look at the website google.com, and I think the color scheme is ugly, I’m totally free to say Google’s color scheme sucked…[the clause] pertains to simply the things that we agree are fine for Google to do.”

However, there’s an important detail to note: Judge James Donato has yet to approve this settlement between Google and Epic Games. Interestingly, he seems to be skeptical about the newfound friendship between the two companies, remarking on their previous fierce rivalry in court.

Additionally, while Sweeney is trying to appear open and consumer-friendly by sharing court documents, the public only knows about these details because Judge Donato denied the request to keep the settlement terms confidential. It’s curious that Sweeney, who has previously criticized Google’s business practices, would want to keep such information under wraps.