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Apple Threatens to Terminate Epic Games' Developer Accounts on August 28
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Apple Developer Program agreement is pretty clear that violating the Agreement policies is a reason for the agreement termination. One could also argue that Epic deliberately used their large customer base to gain leverage and blackmail Apple. Under this view, Epic has a responsibility towards their customers which they have neglected by engaging in a legal war. At the same time, it is true that restricting all products under one agreement gives Apple too much power. Ideally, the Unreal Engine Team should work under a different Developer Agreement.
By the way, I am still not convinced that Epic indeed would lose access to developer tools. I don’t see what blocks them from obtaining a separate Xcode license, which are awailable free of charge.
Lol, absolutely not.
Epic have a pretty strong case. There's a reason why they've been able to attract such high profile legal talent to take this on.
Literally not a word of this is true.
Why do Apple's defenders keep making up trivially checkable things?
It just blows my mind that Apple was just brought in front of congress for these very reasons and they sit here and STILL defend them! It’s absolutely baffling.
Hmmm Epic Sweeny is worth 5.3 Billion
Fortnite franchise is estimated to be worth $2 billion
EPIC Games is worth 18 Billion.
Either party has a lot of endurance, but Apple is the only one of the two being scrutinize by Congress. A lawsuit like this can harm both but its the bigger you are the harder you fall right?
Irrational? Then all the governments in the world are... irrational?!?
Have a look at your last pay report.
Some amounts that are automatically taken from you are capped for the year, some others have marginal % (like taxes in most countries), some others are fixed. This isn't anything new here, it's good old finance 101.
What if your government took 30% of everyone's salary, no matter how much money you make? Would it make sense for you? This is exactly what Apple and the others are doing.
It's harder for a small company that does not generate revenue yet to give 30% of almost nothing than for a big company like Epic to give 30% of a **** ton of cash. If you ever owned a business, you'll know what I'm talking about.
If you are saying that, then basically if Apple charges anything at all, they will be the devil, just to a smaller degree.
Since the AppStore is one of the things that keep iPhone users safe, maybe you should go troll the Android users
What is not true? What is so ”trivially checkable” in my post that you seem to have an issue with?
If it actually goes to court, I’m going to side with the company with 192 billion dollars on hand. And it ain‘t Epic. There is no anti-trust violation here. Apple created the brilliant ecosystem and no one is under any obligation to use it. Android had 87% of the global smart phone market in 2019. Market share doesn’t determine monopoly, but in any case, Good luck Epic.
Again, and many of you keep repeating it, it’s your OPINION there is no violation here, Apple wasn’t pulled in front of congress recently for being a good guy 🙄
what you fail to recall is Microsoft used and abused their power to shut out competitors in illegal deals across the globe. Also within the code of their OS! Just like Apple had prevented default browsers of users choice in Win 3.1: Windows 7 and early Windows 10.
Microsoft also prevented manufacturers whom did not highlight Windows as the primary OS on their computers by threatening to remove their licenses - this was public btw and they got the shift with 21 US STATES threatening to break up their monopoly.
still HP, Dell, Lenovo, and others feature Windows primarily. Prior to Win7 Dell didn’t offer Linux as a choice preloaded on any laptop, nor did HP. Now they do. Ever stop and wonder why the EU forced Microsoft to pull back in in Internet Explorer and Edge as browsers in Windows in Europe?
Another major difference here is Apple is not the market leader in mobile OS, mobile phones or the majority of sales globally - hasn’t been since launch except for the 3G model I believe for 8mths of year
And because they were pulled in front of Congress, doesn't mean anything will come of it either.
You stated -
- Google have stated they will suspend Epic's developer accounts in the coming weeks (they haven't, you've made this up)
- Google will suspend Epic's developer accounts in the coming weeks (they haven't, you've made this up)
- Google can suspend Epic's developer accounts in the same way Apple can (they can't, the Android developer tooling is through Eclipse with is licensed via the GPL and Google do not have the ability to withdraw in that way, and you can sign applications for Android without ever touching a Google service).
- Microsoft have "warned" Epic not to "even try this" (they haven't, you've made this up, what even would Epic be "trying" here - Microsoft has to all intents and purposes no hardware with mandatory code signing where this would be applicable).
- Epic tried the same thing with Steam (they didn't, Steam doesn't have a hardware platform).
- They "lost" this thing they never did with Steam.
The categorization is somewhat obscure, a mix of whether or not the item is physical or digital and its association. So, a weather app that offers a paid option to unlock extended forecast details would be subject to the IAP rules because it alters the app's functionality/content. Additionally, a music app, including a game, that sells or offers a purchasable option to unlock songs would be bound to the IAP guidelines, including the 30/70 share, because they're digital items and they expand the app's content. Whereas, a product purchased in the Amazon app doesn't affect the app's features/functionality/attributes in any way. Of course, this should mean Amazon should be able to sell digital books (a.k.a. ebooks) in the Kindle app without revenue sharing, but it doesn't -- and I can see why this somewhat inconsistent behavior is arguably wrong. In-game currency relates back to my music app and songs example. However -- and this is key -- as mentioned in an earlier post of mine, currency items are a much more routine purchase, even much more than media. This is also where the system breaks down. Paid app enhancements and even media content purchases are a one-time buy, so sharing the revenue clearly seemed acceptable, perhaps equivalent to a finder's or ad, and processor's fees. Now enter digital currencies, which an individual may invest in many times per week. Suddenly, as a developer, you're paying that finder's fee redundantly, which probably doesn't seem fair, and perhaps it is not. But, even though Apple (Google, etc) benefit from it, they didn't create the situation, greedy developers did by believing they came up with a fiendish, recurring revenue system.
And so I say... You might not agree with all of the rules, and some certainly could improve overall with reconsideration. Notwithstanding, developers/publishers such as Epic drove themselves into a pilfering profit position and need to accept, you reap what you sow.
Why would Spotify tell the user to download the app before signing up for the service?
Unless the user discovered the app via the App Store, which in that case, Apple deserves a finders fee.
if physical stores weren’t exempt, Amazon, Target, Best Buy and etc... will never make an app for the app store. Apple had no choice but to exempt that category.
Uh yes they did. I remember downloading a police scanner app that included a hidden game emulator. During app store review, the developer disabled the function until after it was approved. They did this through their backend to control it at run time.
That developer was banned from the app store.
With all the preparation and homework Epic has shown to have done prior to kicking this off, you can bet your bottom dollar Epic full well knew this was going to happen. Yet they went ahead anyway. They are the ones using you (and thousands of third party developers) as a bargaining chip. They could've handled it differently without disruption to your business.
It’s good news to see google hit with more lawsuits now for the 30% extortion and other antitrust behavior. Hopefully more file lawsuits against Apple as well and bring an end to it. Apple should have to pay a lot in punitive awards as well. It’s just a matter of time now.