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No a smartphone is not a necessity. A cell phone is. My grandparents are still using flip phone Jitterbugs and they get by just fine. Therefore, not a necessity.
If it is your only means to communicate with others and you carry life saving medical info it is. No question we are all addicted but for some it is life saving.
 
Yeah, the part that Epic (rightfully) violated.
Again not at all. Maybe try some reading and comprehension lessons. Epic broke the Terms of Contract by implementing an in app payment system which the Judge ruled was against the contract and valid and that if Apple chose to remove them permantently for violating that contract Apple was within their rights to not only remove Epic Games but the Unreal Engine developer account as well that intially had a stay against removal.. The Judge stated Apple must allow notification of alternate payment methods in the App. Not a direct payment option. Take netflix or spotify. Now they can have a link in the app that takes customers directly to the signup on the website. Going forward any developer that wants to have their own payment system can post information in the App about it, but can not build in direct payment, so anyone that wants to buy directly from the developer must leave the app and go to the website. If you gonna try and shill for Epic at least get your facts right.
 
Man you just love to see awful companies facing the consequences of their actions. Hysterical that their ban is lasting for the entire duration of Apple's time that they're wasting. Poetic
 
If it is your only means to communicate with others and you carry life saving medical info it is. No question we are all addicted but for some it is life saving.
Humans communicated and carried life saving info for decades before the invention of cell phones. Life expectancy (in 1st world countries) hasn’t changed significantly. And I still don’t have a flying car.
 
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So, in retrospect "Look elsewhere.." There is no concern of proving alternative payments, just Epic chosee the wrong direction from the start...
 
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Allow me to edit your scathing opinion with facts and clarity:
(Apple are such pathetic sore losers = Apple won, which makes you angry), (kind of pathetic = you don't like them winning), (everyone knows = you hope), (they will be forced to reinstate Epic = Apple will choose to do so), (Eventually = you have that part spot on)
A brilliant analysis, Sir. Well done. 👍
 
It's all within Apple's right. Epic broke the trust first by intentionally hiding a ToS breaking feature that they themselves admitted. Epic can say whatever they want, but they made the first ill-intentioned move. So no sympathy for Epic.
 
Oh man, I’m 100% not into extra iOS stores, extra hidden venues, banners/shops/payments on someone else’s lawn, etc… but as someone that does like Unreal Engine and what the engineers, artists, designers, etc do (i.e every hard worker BUT these trillionaires playing power games) I can see this being a detriment for the adoption of UE and its amazing rendering tech on macOS, iOS, etc… Fortnite for all its flaws and annoyances around it, it was the perfect test bed for Epic eat their own dog food.

I say this as a heavy Unity engine game dev, that engine has an infinite amount of quirks and I think in big part it comes from the fact that Unity Technologies don’t really make AppStore games in a serious sense themselves. Epic on the other has to make the engine work if only for themselves.
 
As it stands, when Apple eventually comply with the court order to allow links to 3rd party payment systems, Epic is a martyr.

They (intentionally or unintentionally) sacrificed their own game so that all other developers could link to 3rd party payment systems in app.

There’s a lot of snarkiness towards Epic because people don’t agree with their means of protest towards this final outcome, but I remain utilitarian in perspective and I’m thankful to Epic. Though I’d rather Epic not be punished as martyrs, I’m glad they had the courage to succeed in forcing the courts to acknowledge Apple’s anti-competitive anti-steering policies and force Apple to allow 3rd party payment options via external links.
 
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As it stands, when Apple eventually comply with the court order to allow links to 3rd party payment systems, Epic is a martyr.

They (intentionally or unintentionally) sacrificed their own game so that all other developers could link to 3rd party payment systems in app.

There’s a lot of snarkiness towards Epic because people don’t agree with their means of protest towards this final outcome, but I remain utilitarian in perspective and I’m thankful to Epic. Though I’d rather Epic not be punished as martyrs, I’m glad they had the courage to succeed in forcing the courts to acknowledge Apple’s anti-competitive anti-steering policies and force Apple to allow 3rd party payment options via external links.

LOL. Courage.

Epic had zero interest in this result. They could care less about being allowed to link to other payment methods. They wanted to have their own store on iphones and charge every other developer.

They aren’t martyrs. They are losers. Big, giant, absolute failures.
 
LOL. Courage.

Epic had zero interest in this result. They could care less about being allowed to link to other payment methods. They wanted to have their own store on iphones and charge every other developer.

They aren’t martyrs. They are losers. Big, giant, absolute failures.
You = Snarky about the means and motive.
Me = Utilitarian and thankful for the outcome.
 
Man you just love to see awful companies facing the consequences of their actions. Hysterical that their ban is lasting for the entire duration of Apple's time that they're wasting. Poetic
I think a just reward for appealing would be the appeals court sending back the judgement against Apple related to the California law. Maybe only people in California will get the links to alternate payment methods.
 
I gotta imagine that Epic's board is strongly considering ousting Tim (S)Weenie and dropping the appeal as a way of placating Apple and getting their revenue stream reinstated.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.... if Epic really believed in open free-for-all for developers then they would let third-parties develop mods and skins for Fortnite and SELL them within the Fortnite game without charing third parties any money. After all, while iOS is Apple's platform, Fortnite is Epic's platform. I don't see Epic offering to let others leverage their platform free of charge.

Epic wanted a free ride. The judge said no. The ruling was perfect because it addressed the one major flaw in Apple's rules that were anti-user and anti-competitive -- the inability to direct a user to a website to sign-up for a subscription or make a payment for access -- it sucked opening apps that did nothing but show you a login screen but give you no link to sign up. However, the ruling did not let Epic get away with their shenanigans without consequences.

Now Epic's master plan of suing Apple and getting a free ride is crumbling around them.
 
So Sweeney essentially loses the biggest part of the case. Yet continues to call Apple a monopoly - which the courts have dismissed. Continues to bad mouth the company in general and also has filed an appeal against the original loss.

And then he still expects Apple to just roll over and support his business? What’s he smoking?

The only person that has shafted Fortnite players is Epic and Sweeney. With their calculated attempt at a cash grab, which has majorly backfired.
 
Does Gen Z even play Fortnite anymore? I’m sure they moved onto Valorant at this point.
That's a very different game. And yes, Fortnite still draws more players than any other Battle Royale.

However also think that Apple is very wrong with this post-trial approach (which seems it came from "Legal").
Epic appealed the court's ruling. As it stands now, after the trial is before the trial.

It does bother me that Apple has enough billions to wait out 5 years until Epic is bankrupt. Microsoft a little?
Poor multi-billion Epic Games.

Apple lied. Apple spent a year telling the world, the court, and the press they’d "welcome Epic’s return to the App Store if they agree to play by the same rules as everyone else"
Epic still doesn't agree. They still want to change the rules or an exception for them. That's why Epic appealed.
 
Uh, because it’s a huge distinction, obviously. A smartphone is pretty much a necessity in any developed country while a gaming console is not. Last time I checked, nobody’s banking or applying for jobs on a PS5.

Consider that in the US that many lower income Americans are less likely to have a smartphone or computer:

Roughly a quarter of adults with household incomes below $30,000 a year (24%) say they don’t own a smartphone. About four-in-ten adults with lower incomes do not have home broadband services (43%) or a desktop or laptop computer (41%).

I wonder how these people do banking or get their jobs?


I completely agree that the fight is about what rights a company has or doesn't have. I don't disagree with the fact that Apple has 100% control over it's own app store but I do think that there is a legit argument about where society draws the lines around monopolistic powers.

And my point about tribalism isn't about protecting your own property rights (with Apple's platform being Apple's property rights) which I full agree with, but around the increasing mentality of revenge, "winning" and hurting someone who "hurts" you back. Whatever stance you have for or against Epic, they had the right to sue Apple, and the outcome worked itself in court system. Yes, Apple has the right to do whatever it wants to do in their own app store, but I hope that these decisions are made for what's best for customers, and not simply to "get back at Epic" which is what some people are advocating for.

That's the point I was trying to make about tribalism.
The problem isn't that Epic had the right to sue Apple, the problem is that they intentionally broke their contract with Apple to try to create a PR stunt. The judge identified that Epic could have brought this suit without breaching their contract with Apple with the same standing and the judge further continued that Apple was within it's rights to exercise it's termination clause of it's contract from Epic's breach. It also highlighted the significant amount of bad faith that Epic also acted under in this entire exercise. Epic's own internal analysis expected that Apple would terminate their contract as a result of Epic's intended actions.

Epic breached their contract with Apple and when it became clear that this breach was intentional and intended to be continual, Apple moved to terminate the contract. It's not revenge if you decide to not deal with someone who hurt you and publicly proclaims it will continue to attempt to hurt you and has publicly stated it has no intention of respecting your rules because it doesn't think they're correct. Apple's stance at this point seems to be we'll wait for the legal battle to complete before making any changes.

It's also bold of Sweeney to come out and say Apple lied when the evidence presented to the court clearly shows Epic Games lied and misrepresented resulting in the termination of their contract. Sweeney pinky promises this time he won't break the rules unlike last time.
 
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Yep seriously, its equivalent of stating Cosco has a monopoly on Kirkland popcorn. Lets go after them!!!
We could, if Kirkland and Acme controlled the entire popcorn market like Apple and Google do.
Apple already got REKT by epic. All app publisher can now use third party payment routes and bypass the royalties.

Meanwhile Apple fanboys still think that Epic lost… 🤣🤣
Yup, Tim was already forced to downgrade to a Gulfstream G550 and just 12 karat gold toilet paper.
 
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Quite Frankly I do not like the conduct of both Apple and Epic since they both equally look bad in this litigation. But I think this litigation shows that congress needs to pass laws to reign in both Apple and Google since they should not be acting as a defacto gatekeeper to which applications their users are allowed to use on their device. I believe the easiest solution would be to allow sideloading and to allow third party application stores to take away the gatekeeper ability of both companies. In addition Apple's decision to temporary block them until the legal process has concluded makes sense so they do not want to potentially run afoul of any possible court ruling.
 
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