Epic Games has had its share of authorized victories through the years, together with one over Google earlier in 2024. However in the case of the federal authorities, the US Justice Department simply got here down on Epic Games for violating Part 8 of the Clayton Act, which was put in place to maintain members of the board of 1 firm from having the ability to serve in the identical capability on a competitor’s board.
The Justice Department announced that two members of Epic’s board who had been appointed by Tencent have voluntarily stepped down after the federal government raised the Clayton Act situation by its Antitrust Division. Tencent is a minority proprietor of Epic, and in addition the bulk proprietor of Riot Games, the corporate behind League of Legends. Epic has since confirmed that the 2 departing board members are Ben Feder and David Wallerstein. Moreover, Tencent has relinquished its proper to nominate any extra members to Epic’s board of administrators.
“Our relationship with Epic has at all times centered on making nice video games and delivering nice experiences for gamers and builders,” stated a Tencent spokesperson. “We stay up for persevering with to work with them on this shared imaginative and prescient.”
Epic subsequently introduced that Feder and Wallerstein might be changed by “two new unbiased board members [who] might be nominated by committees of Epic’s shareholders.” Feder and Wallerstein will presumably retain their positions on Tencent’s board.
Tencent can be a minority proprietor of Ubisoft, which is at the moment in negotiations with the corporate a few potential administration buyout. The Guillemot family–which owns the most important stake in Ubisoft–reportedly desires to keep up management of the corporate in any deal, whereas Ubisoft has been stated to be in a “better say on future board choices” in alternate for any future funding within the firm. For now, no deal between the 2 firms has been introduced.
Earlier this week, Epic went to court docket to sue an alleged cheater, whom the corporate claims has used unauthorized software program to realize an unfair benefit throughout a number of of the corporate’s Fortnite tournaments, which allowed him to stroll away with 1000’s of {dollars} in prize cash. In the meantime, Epic remains to be butting heads with Apple over the previous’s need to construct an app retailer.