In one of the most pointed questions at the whole hearing, this statement was followed up with the question “So you don’t think it’s necessary to comply with data regulations and laws by establishing the age of people who play your game?” The response and the incredibly surprising one by Canon Pence was:
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Later on, when pointedly stated by a member of the committee that the representatives of Epic Games that they “have said in your evidence today that you haven’t even bothered to check whether there is any potential harm” and then followed up by also stating “You are allowing these children to have access without checking their age before they can access your game, you seem to be taking no responsibility, no duty of care at all”.
Canon Pence responded and, like EA before him, attempted to lay the blame on other companies by saying:
If you’re a PlayStation user, all of that transaction goes through PlayStation so they own the relationship with the user. It’s the same with Nintendo, it’s the same with Apple, it’s the same with Xbox. We don’t own that account, we don’t own that payment.
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In a strange turn, early on in the session, there was a strange moment where Matthew Weissinger, the Director of Marketing for Epic Games, actually attempted to state that Epic Games don’t actually make money from people playing the game. He specifically stated:
I would disagree with the statement that Epic makes money from people playing the games. The Battle Royale mode is free to play.
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There were also many pointed questions as to the frequency of players, lapsed players and more. As could be expected, Epic wasn’t very forthright in answering these questions and repeatedly backtracked on answers. At one point a frequent player was described as somebody who has played within the previous two weeks (14 days) or within the previous 30 days. Very shortly after, it was also stated that “It’s difficult to define a frequent player”.
From both companies, questions as to the length of time people are playing the games were avoided, with both companies stating they don’t keep track of these metrics as well as questioning as to how long as actually too long on a video game.
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