If there’s one constant in the lustrum-long Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit, it’s that Tim Sweeney, Epic’s CEO, tends to… get creative when it comes to publicly interpreting and promoting the company’s legal wins. Late last Friday, Epic once again tried to spin a limited courtroom victory into a public-relations campaign. Now, it has been granted a chance to make the antics fly in court. I am shocked, shocked! In a sense, the entire Epic Games v. Apple case was built on a bit of theater. Epic already knew it would get kicked out of the App Store and Google’s Play Store if it released a Fortnite update with a hidden, server-side activated, parallel IAP system, and it did so anyway. Not only that, but court documents showed that Epic had the entire lawsuit and Free Fortnite campaign ready to go beforehand. The stunt was codenamed Project Liberty. Swag made in advance for Fortnite’s totally unexpected rejection on the App Store and Play Store In fact, this willing breach of the stores’ terms partly contributed to District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ decision to leave Fortnite’s reinstatement up to Apple’s discretion. Take the wins, tweak the wins Days after the initial court ruling, Sweeney publicly accused Apple of lying about its willingness to reinstate Fortnite if Epic agreed to follow the same rules as other developers. He claimed Epic was ready to comply, but Apple still refused to restore Fortnite on iOS. An act he called “abuse of monopoly power over a billion users.” The problem was that Sweeney’s own correspondence with Apple showed that Epic’s offer to “play by the rules” came with conditions: Epic will resubmit Fortnite to the App Store if you adhere to the plain language of the court order and allow apps to include buttons and external links that direct customers to other purchasing mechanisms without onerous terms or impediments to a good user experience. Standing alone, the request looks perfectly reasonable. But in context, it reads more like a calculated PR move, meant to give Epic the appearance of leverage and control it didn’t actually have. In the months and years that followed, through appeals, interviews, and public statements, Sweeney consistently framed the lawsuits as decisive victories or proof of Apple’s and Google’s wrongdoing, even when courts largely sided with the platforms and declined to label them as illegal monopolists. Which brings us to the fruits of Friday’s motion filed by Epic. New hearing scheduled for May 27th A few minutes ago, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers formally granted Epic its day in court, again. In a Order to Show Cause, she signaled she’s running out of patience, and reminded Apple that it never received a stay from the Ninth Circuit after her April 30 ruling. She also emphasized that the company is “fully capable of resolving this issue without further briefing or a hearing.” In a nutshell, the court ordered that the Apple official “personally responsible for ensuring compliance” must appear in person if the two companies don’t resolve the matter before the hearing. As ever, Epic certainly won’t miss the opportunity to turn this sliver of procedural progress into a broader narrative about platform abuse and user freedom. If that will also fly with the Judge, we’ll find out soon enough. Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel #epic #games #trying #scheme #its