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Apple Terminates Epic Games' Developer Account
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By “fanboys” you mean anyone who has different opinions and values different things than you?
I am confused. Either they are trapped or they can move freely to some other platform. Which is it?
Their response of “if you do not like the platform you should move to one do you like” is “arrogant” but your response of “you are a fanboy because you do not want what I want“ is not. Got it.
While that is likely a true (if meaningless statement), I am not even sure what you mean by “on top”. There is almost no market in which Apple has the largest market share. What they do have it the highest customer satisfaction, and generate the most money for developers in their ecosystem (despite being their marketshare being much smaller).
I am sure you are correct and the market with show that with sales numbers. Looking forward to your comments after we see their holiday sales.
Not that I disagree with all your points, but... what marketplace should they use instead, and/or how should they sell directly to consumers?
I don't think they have a leg to stand on with Google, since they can just sell the APK, but Apple? How does one sell to iPhone users "without" the app store?
Initially I wondered the same things. I can’t speak for every family but in my home, Apple won.
My kids already have a gaming PC and Switches. They played Fortnite on iPhone XR’s because their friends were playing Fortnite on iPhone XR’s. I offered to put Fortnite on my Samsung S20 and let them borrow it, but ultimately they weren’t interested because their friends don’t have Androids and weren’t interested in moving to console versions as it wasn’t the game itself that drew them as it was the experience of playing this game with friends wherever they happened to be.
At sleepovers there was ease and spontaneity in being able to just grab their phones for an impromptu session of Fortnite. Nobody wanted to drag a Switch around or be tethered to a console, but the iPhone was always on them. It was just a convenient game that happened to be accessible on their iPhones.
The few times I’ve had them try my Android phones they hated the experience. They want FaceTime and iMessage. They want iPhones. One of their friends is on a Samsung S10e and they are fine with that, so it’s not a status clique thing. They genuinely like the hardware and ecosystem, the ease of switching between iPads and iPhones.
Everyone was pretty mad about this whole fiasco at first, but they have moved on to Minecraft and Animal Crossing on Switch while simultaneously talking on FaceTime or speaker phone when their friend with the Samsung phone joins in.
I’m wary of anybody being so devoted to a company’s products that they can’t move on if that company’s policies start running counter to their best interests. But this specific situation isn’t that hill to die on. As a parent I’m fine with the kids staying put on iPhones. Even if they did want to switch to Androids, I am not replacing perfectly fine phones for a game!
I can spell 'consequences', and my posts don't sound like the rants of an angry child. Educate that.
no they don’t. Yet lawyers have a very strong influence within the courts on how laws are interpreted through their cases. It’s called legal reference as when lawyer calls “smith vs Wallgreene’s” as an example. That’s not an actual case reference just an exampleof what I’m referring to.
Cheers.
It's hilarious that for people who have Fortnite on their iOS devices, the direct payment option still works but Apple's In-App Purchases has now been broken by Apple revoking Epic's account.
This has created an interesting situation - Fortnite installs on iOS were probably drying up as interest in the game was waning. But for all those old installs, players have now been forced to pay Epic directly. Potentially, Epic is making more money off of iOS users now than they were when they were actually within the iOS App Store.
This would be fairly damning, proving that Apple's behavior is well and truly rent-seeking, that businesses actually can do better getting removed from the App Store than they are being on it, despite the enormous walls Apple has erected to try to make the iOS App Store the only viable way to make money selling things to iOS users.
This has created an interesting situation - Fortnite installs on iOS were probably drying up as interest in the game was waning. But for all those old installs, players have now been forced to pay Epic directly. Potentially, Epic is making more money off of iOS users now than they were when they were actually within the iOS App Store.
This would be fairly damning, proving that Apple's behavior is well and truly rent-seeking, that businesses actually can do better getting removed from the App Store than they are being on it, despite the enormous walls Apple has erected to try to make the iOS App Store the only viable way to make money selling things to iOS users.
They can build a web app (WebAssembly supports quite a bit) if they want to sell to iOS/iPadOS users not through the Apple App Store. However, they have no inherent right to be able to sell on every platform. Apple’s limiting them on its devices does not prevent them from targeting those same customers with other devices (either as a supplement like a Nintendo Switch, or a replacement like an Android device).
Exactly the way they have sold to most of their customers so far, by making their product available on a platform that iPhone users can purchase. My BF has an iPhone 11 Pro Max, two iPad Pros (small and large), a Macbook Pro and a Mac Pro. He also has a PlayStation 4 and a Nintendo Switch. Unless and until Apple are able to prevent people from purchasing non-Apple gear (like purchasing all the limited wireless spectrum and only allowing it to be used on Apple devices), customers have choices.
The courts are very clear that:
The game market includes all the consoles, general purpose PCs and cell phones. Apple has a very small share of it.
let’s see all those developers feel with the same 30% over at google play store. Or amazon App Store.
let’s see how long their livelihoods can withstand the sudden lack of income stream, that their negotiating power fails them elsewhere, their operating costs Sky rocket for hosting their game on the Internet, the bandwidth needs and costs per 10/50/100/1000 downloads a month/week/day, redeploy all patches for yet another platform they’ll need to support, for customers to repurchase the same product cause it’s on another platform, for customers to purchase n be comfortable on another platform.
I doubt you’re fully ready for that at once. I doubt all iOS developers are as well.
It's weird to see people celebrating higher prices and restricted options.
Apple was always going to win this battle, but they are likely to lose the war. The EU will bear down on them and Apple may end up losing the store and tight control on iOS software. I foresee a scenario where they will need to allow alternative stores or means of downloading apps in Europe.
‘Fandom’. They support Apple against their personal interests. You can love Apple’s products and services without being cool with their monopolistic tendencies.
It's weird to see projections that some alternative would yield a better overall experience for the customer and not a worse, unsecured mess.
And yet it seems like this does. Let me explain by your statements above:
exactly what is Tim Cook a fraud of??
^ seems like a blind conviction there.
a CEO better know how to count beans of the company their running else they’ll spend far too much and run it in the ground really quickly and they’d NOt have a job left. That or the board would cut them out VERY fast: I’ve seen this first hand at the worlds second largest gold mining company back in early 2013!
what’s the Push come to Shove that makes Tim a Fraud?
what is Tim power tripping of or with? Epic agreed to the rules and on purpose directly circumvented them for their own cause knowing full well if the consequences. It’s a legal binding contract! No power tripping here.
Maybe or maybe not. Alternative app stores may not be as good as experience as is being projected.
Except that prices are NOT higher. Compare the prices of software before and after the App Store.
Anti-apple zealots simultaneously argue on here two irreconcilable points:
1) because of apple’s 30/15%, developers can’t make a living
2) prices would be cheaper without apple’s 30/15%
The reason these developers have problems is they charge too little, and they can’t charge more because there is too much competition and their software doesn’t exceed the competition by enough to be able to charge more.
People will blindly criticize Apple as well even if they may have their products. People don't understand the hardware is yours but the software is licensed.
Maybe show a premise, argument and conclusion instead of some hyperbole, masquerading as some fact.
A fair shake off of Apple's back for something they agreed to in the beginning. Greedy Epic made their money from the app store on Apple's back and decided they want to try to cut out Apple. Good luck to them.
You mean what Epic did? Good let them form a coalition and then have anti-trust rules applied to the entire lot of them.
A company does NOT need to voluntarily sign-up to be a dev if they don't like the T&C. Epic shot themselves in the proverbial foot by pulling this stunt.
I don't game on the iphone but Epic hopefully will not prevail. It sets a bad precedent.
If you're not used to seeing tribalists argue against their own well-being by now, you must not follow politics at all.
P.S. I envy you.
If you're not used to seeing outsiders argue for a worse way of being by now, you must not follow politics at all.
you’re concluding that millions of transactions that equate to a yearly total is not worth Apple’s efforts?
Apple created an incredible stable OS (by all accounts from previous MacOS generation or Windows XP/7). This OS worked perfectly to be a mobile OS. Leading the industry in so many areas (with patents), causing innovation to change the smartphone landscape. Google even wanted the pie (fun Fact Paul Ruben of Google GMAIL game also creates the Danger Inc OS for SideKicks/HipTop devices before working on Android OS).
Apple created the hardware
- no cost to developers. Marketed the hardware incredibly well.
Apple created the SDK and keeps it well updated.
- only cost to developers is purchasing a Mac (unless you use a hosted Mac or Swift).
- This SDK allows developers to create MacOS, WatchOS, TVOS, or iOS apps no extra charge.
Apple hosts the apps developers submit no charge. Indefinitely.
- Developers submit 1-time app is ready for a billion devices.
- app is buggy, developers fix and upload patch. Done.
App Store: curated by Apple. Allows all devices with support up to 5yrs to purchase/download a developers apps to.
- any major changes to the core OS Apple lets developers know a full year or more in advance.
- Apple handles all the work and costs of maintaining the store.
- developers get to choose which markets they sell too.
- developers are paid every 30 days without fail or delay!
- for almost 5yrs developers got paid no matter what no refunds! Too many junk apps that just displayed 1 page were caught and now Apple handles arbitration in good fairness to customers and developers evenly. Refund occursyour app is FULLY removed from all the users devices!
- the protection of the App Store means games are NOt downloaded reverse engineered by code and redistributed under a new developer affecting your revenues.
you couldn’t do that with cartridge games back in the day; Sony still had this issue with PS3, as did Nintendo or Nokia with NGage (many developers were seriously pissed at Nokia for that issue; read about that one). - developers do NOT pay for any bandwidth for the amount of copies purchased or Redownloaded. This is a HUGE cost per month/day/year and grows exponentially when you increase the markets you sell to or offer free apps for.
- Developers do NOT have to pay for ANY advertising fees! If you want to our up a web ad or magazine ad. Most magazines will feature your game or app for free in reviews if it’s really good!
did I mention support for 5yrs on iOS devices?! Android doesn’t come close to that! Moreover Android doesn’t guarantee your app will work on all those various android OS devices released in the same year of your app - why? LOL.
I haven’t yet mentioned the cost of time for arbitration when refund claims are being made. Analytics fees - none.
I thought the EU already looked into this matter haven’t they? Before the Epic issue.
the 13 US states courts reprimanded Microsoft due to business practices strong arming deals not their software/services. Microsoft did NOT loose their balls in the industry: Windows and SQL server, MS Office, Windows OS are all still here today.
The industry, and some big laziness, forced Microsoft to adapt:
windows PocketPC & Smartphone OS’ failed due to laziness for a long time before iPhone debuted. Same with Nokia and their Symbian OS not to mention them not considering USA market seriously beyond 4 device deals with small carriers.
EU forced Microsoft NOt to bundle IE with Windows OS as non-competitive since web developers heavily coded for it vs anything else. Germany finally gave MS the big fat middle after flights from then CEO Balmer trying to save contract deal with Germany govt for their use of Windows Server/SQL/OS and chose to go with Suse Linux.
heavy competition in mobile for word/excel readers and editors along with horrible Microsoft implementations therein and rising ease of use of Apple Works and Google Sheets etc forced Microsoft to adapt heavily. Jumping in late to the cloud market yet heavily innovating there increased their presence and demand.
that is what made Microsoft “nicer” today than the 90’s
I think in Apple’s mind, iPhone and its safe walled garden is the marketplace. So if epic wants to reach Apple users directly, it will have to be on their PCs/consoles/Macs but not on iPhone.