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Apple Terminates Epic Games' Developer Account
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If you're gonna say Apple's 30% rule comes from being greedy on top of the mountain... then shouldn't the same be said for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo who also have the same rules?
Aren't those guys on top of their mountains too?
Should they allow alternative stores on their platforms?
To use your words... Playstation, XBox, and Switch wouldn't be where they are if it weren't for the loyalty and support they received from developers.
And those developers certainly pay their 30% fee on those platforms.
I agree with the end result you predict, but your reasoning is wrong.
The judge didn’t say what you said she said. She said that she will not issue a temporary restraining order preventing apple from removing EPIC’s developer credentials. She didn’t say that apple *should* remove them, she didn’t say Epic had to do anything, etc. And there will most certainly be a motion for a preliminary injunction by Epic next. I assume the judge will rule the same way, but who knows. Then, of course, eventually there will be a trial on the merits of Epic’s arguments.
99€ per year is the dev subscription fee. Nothing free in Apple land.
no, actually Xcode is free. The $99 is for the developer program.
Customer goes to Walmart, they pay to the products’ owner. Not to Walmart. And that’s reasonable for Walmart to cut % from products owner. We don’t pay to Walmart for its cost to build a store. But for Apple, customers PAY for the iphone (considered a place like brick and mortar Walmart). Apple already gets the money for its phone (I.e. its store). So.... for a customer having to pay for the products and 30% of that goes to Apple is not justifiable. We already pay for phone. And we should not have to pay to Apple again. If there is another way to install app on iphone, this situation would not happen. But in reality, every apps have to be installed from App Store. For me 30% is way too much. 2-5% for processing and maintenance from Apple side is enough.
CNBC provides some nice insight too
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/28/apple-suspends-fortnite-maker-epic-games-app-store-account.html
“Apple said that Fortnite’s users have been directed by Epic Games to contact AppleCare, and that those requests have caused refund quality issues and support problems for Apple users around the world.“
So Fornite Users want their money back - from Apple? Interesting how this will turn out.
“We estimate that, since January 2012, Epic Games’ mobile titles have been downloaded more than 159 million times across Apple’s App Store globally, generating approximately $1.2 billion in consumer spending,”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/28/apple-suspends-fortnite-maker-epic-games-app-store-account.html
“Apple said that Fortnite’s users have been directed by Epic Games to contact AppleCare, and that those requests have caused refund quality issues and support problems for Apple users around the world.“
So Fornite Users want their money back - from Apple? Interesting how this will turn out.
“We estimate that, since January 2012, Epic Games’ mobile titles have been downloaded more than 159 million times across Apple’s App Store globally, generating approximately $1.2 billion in consumer spending,”
Although I like this the problem is Apple does not LET epic “sell directly to consumers” on iPhone (why they picked the same fight with google when they DO is anybody’s guess, I think it shows epic is desperate to get as much money from their fad as possible but to each their own ).
The issue at hand is are phones different enough from normal PCs and such that they should be allowed to be more locked down? I say yes. I’ve tried Android. It’s a freakin mess, a phone is a necessary tool that you absolutely need when you need it and that’s why I didn’t like android and stopped jailbreaking and messing with IOS. I want to know exactly how my phone will work all the time due to a controlled system. Others disagree.
The fact is though that Apple is NOT a monopoly. You want to play? Nobody is stopping somebody from buying an Android and downloading the same exact app. You want to enjoy it on an Apple phone expect to play by apples rules.
The real question is whether any government should be allowed to determine what a particular device is ”allowed to“ be (aside from threats to health, safety, etc.)
Yeah XCode is free and even 99$ per year is pretty cheap for what you get, compared to developer tools on some other platforms like Visual Studio, Delphi...
On the main topic, the problem is not 30%, "problem" is monopoly over App Store on iOS. But this also effectively prevents piracy, which is proven to take much more than just 30% from developers, especially from those that don't use subscription or microtransaction model in their apps.
On the main topic, the problem is not 30%, "problem" is monopoly over App Store on iOS. But this also effectively prevents piracy, which is proven to take much more than just 30% from developers, especially from those that don't use subscription or microtransaction model in their apps.
Stores still take their cut, be it in the markup price or not.
Also do you know how a department store works? It literally works like the App Store, each company puts in their own stuff (concession) and the department store takes a cut of their sales from that concession.
There is a growing movement to change retail rental towards a sales based price, where each store owes rent based on it’s income, rather than a set figure.
This would also be akin to the APP Store.
David Cicilline, the chairman of the House antitrust panel has a different opinion
"The kind of common theme is the abuse of their market power to maintain their market dominance, to crush competitors, to exclude folks from their platform and to earn monopoly rents."
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/26/antitrust-investigation-apple-disturbing-behavior/
If you think Apple is bad, Walmart is worse. Try to be a small business and have your product on the Walmart shelves. Walmart contracts are known to be draconian.
And yes, you pay Walmart to build their stores. It’s called margins. Where do you think Walmart have the money to build their stores? They didn’t just magically create their own money.
At the end, why would you even use Apple products if you despises Apple so much for making money? Get an Android and sideload.
Monopoly is a term that has evolved and means a lot of different things to different people now. It began with every corner being “standard oil” no matter how far you went “standard oil” was their stomping out the competition and then ramping up prices crazy the competitor was dead.
If Apple controlled the entire smartphone market and you had no choice but to download from the Apple App Store that in my mind is a monopoly. It simply isn’t the case. Wether or not the jury (or Supreme Court which I suspect this will head) agrees with me who knows.
This is being pissed that your favorite gas (most lucrative users) charges more than the competition (which Apple doesn’t) and trying to force them to lower their price.
Funny how Apple can never run out of alternative stores, seeing that there’s only the one.
At least there’s PUBG when all you really want to buy is I Am Rich.
But you aren’t forced to buy an iPhone, therefore you aren’t forced to one store.
When you buy an iPhone you know what your getting into.
It's only right that Apple refunds users money. The User is the one that is getting harmed. They were mislead in buying vbucks in anticipation of playing the next season of the game. Epic willfully used their users as pawns to suck in as much money as they could before pulling this surprise very well knowing they were not going to stick to their end of the bargain. This is borderline fraudulent. What's stopping other developers from making big promises, collect big money on subscriptions, then walk away using the guise, we don't want to pay Apple 30% anymore.
I am not sure why Epic would be so smug on this. Although, Apple will end up refunding purchases, I am sure there is also a clause in the agreement that says if Apple refunds a purchase, the developer must give back the 70% they were already paid. I don't care who's side you are on this. No judge will side that Apple is responsible for Epic's portion of the refund.
Well, Me as “soon” non-Apple user... giving up my whole current Apple Eco System iP11ProMax256, maxed out MacBookPro15-2016, AppleWatch S4, iPadPro2020Wifi. I have two kids, well my daughter is 19 not a kid anymore
. But both own Android Phones already, was their own choice, they could have gotten some lower end iPhone like the XR, etc. but they wanted Android Phones. My wife is already p’off at her iPX, because Mask+FaceID sucks. Dunno what she will do with her 27” iMac(my ex. iMac) and her MacBookPro.Well that’s our current iDevice state. The hardest to replace will be my iPad, but i think i will just get me MS Surface or a Wacom Cintiq Studio. I was mainly doing concept drawings on the iPad, Cintiq Studio would be nice for that. I already use a Wacom on my Ryzen workstation.
I had a AppleTV once, but sent it back, it was too family unfriendly. When I had it, I could not even login to multiple accounts, our family PS4Pro is doing fine since that time at our 75” Sony TV and Projector.
We don’t need any HomeKit stuff, our habits are too unpredictable, and I don’t want to become like somebody from the “WALL-E” movie.
As a developer, good that I always set my tech environment in a way that it can be used over multiple platforms.
My AppleWatch is being a brick anyway, I tend to use it less and less. Once I gave one to my wife for Bday, she didn’t like it, and we sent it back. The Watch was too fat on her wrist and masculine. Personally I’m tending to get some decent classic 2k-4k watch instead of another short term life 500€ tech trash.
Maps, I use the build-in one of my BMW.
To edit and grade videos I use DaVinci Resolve, anything else makes no sense to me.
The iOS security excuses are all non-sense. Our whole industry is built on non-apple devices, starting with the server running your online banking and ending with your linux router. I bet 99.9% of the ones in here who say iOS is so safe, and thats why they use it, runs a unsafe lower end 50$ Netgear router full of security holes 👍.
Anyway, there is nothing wrong with being a fanboy, don’t worry. Enough of senseless flamewars in here for now, I have to get things done.
If there is truly -only- one option government has a duty to step in, if there’s competition government should stay the hell away.
I‘ll try to get my money back for Infinity Blade and Infinity Blade II - from 2012 🤣 This will end up in another legal fight - since those apps are still available but Apple removed em.
But I‘ll wait - guess Apple will fix this very soon and old titles will be available to download again. Still have an old iPad in case Apple tells me those games won’t run on iOS13.
Nah, I think you need to se
because Netflix and amazon directly help Apple sell devices. Epic doesn’t. This is business not charity.
You should go ahead and inform the antitrust chairman - guess he doesn‘t have the insight you do ...
not false. You can side load, or install different app stores such as the amazon one.