Wow, that's some real Daniel Eran Dilger-level emotive propaganda language.
Errr, did they not? Their alternative IAP system, carefully hidden so as to skip past App Store reviewers and remotely activated later on, is a textbook case of a trojan horse. It could be malware, or any other nefarious, policy-breaking “feature”, for all it matters, and not some cute easter egg. That’s why such a deliberately mischievous practice, especially if it entails breaking agreements, should always warrant a ban on principle. No ifs, no buts. Interestingly, it wouldn’t surprise – nor bother – me in the least if Apple outright banned any other smaller devs if they did something so blatantly unmistakable like this (emphasis on “unmistakable”, lest you think I agree with App Store review’s sometimes trigger-happy and arcane nature, which I don’t), and it’s funny how Epic still paints itself as a victim and you guys still defend them when Apple was VERY tolerant of a company that conducted itself in this way, giving them several chances to reverse course without further consequences, even while (or maybe because, whatever) they were being sued. Call Apple greedy all you like, but about the only thing you can’t call them in this particular case is heavy-handed (no, really; you lot seem to forget how Steve Jobs nixed partnerships with a lot of companies over extremely milder stuff by comparison, and if he was still alive, this s***show would be 10x more fun to watch or wouldn’t even have happened in the first place, as he’d have ripped Sweeney a new one – or at least strongly hinted at that – right after the first side letter, I can pretty much guarantee you that). Epic probably got away with it for so long only because they were too big and enmeshed with the ecosystem, because of UE, to be given the boot right away (that, or there is indeed a grace period for developers to reverse course from inside their developer accounts, and I take no issue with that, either).
Seriously, consider the following analogous scenario: if any other company (say, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc.) deliberately did this kind of thing with an app that dealt with personal information or documents, would you be so permissive and chill about it? Would you really side with the wrongdoer? Would you even
trust them? The only reason you people are giving Sweeney a pass on this is because this is a stupid game we’re talking about and you may be hoping for some savings (ha! How naïve of you… Of course Epic would eventually eat them up instead of passing them over to you). I, as a user, would rather have Apple protect me and my privacy from unscrupulous developers and enforce a zero-tolerance policy on these shenanigans, lest their inaction set a dangerous precedent and eroded trust (in this case, on Apple and iOS themselves), capisce? Yes, even if I played Fortnite and made a lot of IAPs.
The ban is over something much bigger and serious than that, with ramifications most of you useful “anti-fanboy fanboys” aren’t even considering or willing to admit. Epic may be 100% right about the entire financial angle, but I wholeheartedly applaud Apple’s ban (which has much less to do with IAP commissions than you people claim; there were some negotiation attempts on Epic’s part over those and Apple stood their ground and ignored them, sure, but Epic fired back in about the worst, stupidest way they could). Yes, to make an example of them, absolutely. Because such “business practices” rank even below those of Microsoft back in its evil days, and you should know it takes a lot for a longtime Apple user to say something like that. It’s one thing to rob other companies’ and people’s IP and falsely paint oneself as an innovator (and booooy, did Epic do that, too, as if all the rest wasn’t bad enough); aggressively deceiving others and breaking contracts, treating their users and customers like trash and using them as pawns by deliberately denying them service or putting them at risk, etc.?
That’s a different ball game, and it takes a very special and rare combination of evil, entitled and stupid to get to that point.
As for the lawsuit, which is not even what this article is about, I don’t give a damn about it either way. Yeah, sure, lower IAPs, force Apple to allow other stores, knock yourselves out. I just hope it doesn’t make my mobile platform of choice more vulnerable, and if that entails, conversely, Epic losing, throwing a tantrum, taking their UE ball with them and us having x% less games on the App Store (yes, including on the Mac), screw it. I honestly don’t care anymore at this point.
