• Epic Games kicked off a legal battle with Google on Monday and it was revealed that the Epic Games Store wasn’t profitable.
• VP and general manager Steve Allison said this while on the witness stand ,but did say that the company was focused on growth.
• The firm recently laid off 16 percent of its staff.

Epic Games, the company infamous for trying to fight Apple and both winning and losing, is now in a legal fight with Google. The game maker and purveyor is again locked in a legal battle over store fees arguing that Google’s fees for in-app purchases are too high and it should be allowed to bypass these. Google argues that by bypassing its systems, the user experience will be less secure.

As is so often the case in these legal battles, some surprising revelations often surface and this case is no different, and we’re one day into the battle. The most notable revelation is that despite having been around for half a decade, exclusivity deals and a litany of free carrots to lure gamers to its store, the Epic Games Store isn’t profitable.

This was revealed by the vice president and general manager for the Epic Games Store, Steve Allison during court proceedings. While on the witness stand, Allison said that the Store isn’t profitable and while startling, once you stop to think about it, it’s not all that surprising.

Earlier this year it was revealed that Epic spends millions to secure the free games it gives away to gamers every week. The hope is that when a player claims a free game they will stay on the platform and potentially spend money on the Epic Games Store. Unfortunately, that gamble didn’t pay out last year as Epic saw spending drop by two percent per a report from The Verge.

However, chief executive officer Tim Sweeney attributed the decline to decreased spending in Fortnite rather than a decline in folks buying games on the platform.

While Epic Games is focused on “growth” according to Allison, it’s not clear what that means exactly. More users sounds good, but if they aren’t spending money on its titles or buying titles from the store, what does that growth look like?

Furthermore, Epic just laid off 16 percent of its employees, divesting Bandcamp and most of SuperAwesome so we’re not talking about team growth either.

In its announcement about those layoffs, Epic Games noted that it’s taking steps to reduce its legal expenses but still fighting both Apple and Google on its store fees.

Already Google’s legal team has started turning Epic’s statement against it. After stating that Epic’s fee – which as low as it is, still exists – is the cost of accessing the firm’s audience, something Google questioned as to whether it deserved a higher fee given the size of its audience.

We’re only one day into this matter and we suspect that there may be more revelations that come to the surface in the days and weeks to come. Whether Epic can turn this into a win remains to be seen.