Epic Games CEO Renews Attack on Apple and Calls for Single, Universal App Store

Play stupid games win stupid prizes. Epic tried and lost. We have choice. Android or iOS. Maybe it's a limited choice but there is one. Mobile devices are now so embedded into our lives. As someone above hinted at, our entire lives are on these things. Not just contacts list, GPS data, but banking information. They now open the doors to our homes, control our cars......

Yeah I want just anyone putting an app on my phone. Jobs was on the right path all along. No apps. Web Apps.
 
neuropsychguy said:
Why stop at a single store? Let’s require a single OS that will work on every device. That way everyone can be miserable together.
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Well no, but i would welcome open hardware spec per law, to allow third-parties to write drivers etc without reverse engineering.
 
2010mini said:
So Epic is asking for a monopoly?
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I think I figured out the agenda.

A universal store would not only be difficult to manage content wise but also in terms of all the different currencies.

He's probably pushing an App Store currency or token.

And that token will be mostly owned by him, other rich people, and wealthy criminals.

So this is mostly like a fix to make these terrible rich people even richer.

Do we think that if they become richer they will become saner?

Of course not. They will become even more crazy and probably very inclined towards authoritarian behaviour.

And their children will be even worse when they inherit the wealth.
 
laptech said:
I do not think his idea of one store is a bad idea. We have game stores that sells all different game publishers games. We have music stores that sells all different music publishers music so why not have a digital store that sells all different apps from multiple platforms. The principle has been in existance in real world merchant stores for decades so why not have one in the digital world?
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So who runs/hosts said mega store and what’s the cut to cover the servers, employee costs to maintain the store.

His suggestion is stupid - do we just merge all grocery stores into one? Close all other clothing stores and only sell at Walmart?

Consumers have choices, competition is needed. He just hates Apple’s walled ecosystem.

He agreed to Apple’s rules and then blatantly broke them - yet he continues to whine about a system he initially had no issues joining.
 
CHI-M said:
Let's face it, Apple is using it's monopoly power to force developers to use their app store in order for them to install apps on user's phone(and have to pay a tax to do so). How Apple got away with this for so long is beyond me. Imagine if MS locked down Windows and Apple iTunes had to pay MS 30% for every music and app store transaction that occurred on MS windows. Woulda been unheard of. iPod may never existed and digital music downloads may be $1.50 per song vs. $0.99/each.

Bottom line, Mobile Phone OS is no different that desktop OS and the restriction imposed for owners of iPhones from being able to install apps outside app store is outrageous and can't last forever.
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It's much easier to side load with Android, bypassing that evil monopolistic app store that exploits devs. Ironically most devs who make money by actually selling apps, not via ad traffic, prefer iOS because it's significantly more profitable for app (not ad) revenue. One of the reasons is software piracy. I'm sure you would never dream of pirating and every app installed on your laptop (along with music and movies) were legitimately paid for. The fact remains that other people, who are not as honest as you, will pirate anything that isn't locked down. Yes, I realize it's hard to believe. Requiring an app store distribution pretty much prevents any form of piracy except for the uber niche group of jailbreakers. So I would disagree with the contention that "Mobile Phone OS is no different that desktop OS" given that there is virtually zero software piracy for mobile, at least for iOS with no side loading.
 
It’s pretty clear at this point that Epic’s endgame is to be able to offer their own App Store on iOS where they can both keep 100% of all earnings from their own apps, as well as charge developers a commission for hosting their apps.

I don’t fault Epic for doing what they are doing to try and gain more power, but let’s not try to pretend that they are in it to benefit consumers or empower developers. It’s for their own benefit and their own benefit alone.
 
Abazigal said:
It’s pretty clear at this point that Epic’s endgame is to be able to offer their own App Store on iOS where they can both keep 100% of all earnings from their own apps, as well as charge developers a commission for hosting their apps.

I don’t fault Epic for doing what they are doing to try and gain more power, but let’s not try to pretend that they are in it to benefit consumers or empower developers. It’s for their own benefit and their own benefit alone.
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And yet if that were the case, why haven’t they just done it on Android, where they could make their own store any time they wanted? That’s what I can’t figure out.

They’re doing the same thing on Windows, with the Epic Games Store, where they are basically burning money by the truckload to buy timed exclusivity for certain titles and to give away free game in the hope of getting people to use their storefront, which is lacking most of the features that make Steam so formidable to compete against.

So, clearly, they understand the concept, but they haven‘t done the same thing on Android. I genuinely don’t understand why, if “giving users a choice” is truly such a moral imperative for them.

The fact that they’re ignoring Android, where they could have a store but don’t, to whine about not being able to have a store on iOS seems a bit silly to me.
 
Lihp8270 said:
In all seriousness the current state of tv streaming is a joke.

With so many different services have different exclusives it’s more expensive than ever if you need multiple providers.

If I want to catch a full football season I’d require Sky + Sky Sports, BTSports, Amazon Prime.

Then there’s shows only available on Netflix, then those only available on NowTV and only available on Disney+.
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It used to be available under one roof. It was called cable and everyone hated it. Everyone wanted a choice of which service/channels to subscribe to. Now you are compiling about that too ?
 
rukia said:
It's much easier to side load with Android, bypassing that evil monopolistic app store that exploits devs. Ironically most devs who make money by actually selling apps, not via ad traffic, prefer iOS because it's significantly more profitable for app (not ad) revenue. One of the reasons is software piracy. I'm sure you would never dream of pirating and every app installed on your laptop (along with music and movies) were legitimately paid for. The fact remains that other people, who are not as honest as you, will pirate anything that isn't locked down. Yes, I realize it's hard to believe. Requiring an app store distribution pretty much prevents any form of piracy except for the uber niche group of jailbreakers. So I would disagree with the contention that "Mobile Phone OS is no different that desktop OS" given that there is virtually zero software piracy for mobile, at least for iOS with no side loading.
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Another reason -- probably the main reason — that iOS apps make more money than Android apps is because iOS users tend to be more affluent than Android users. Sure, Android has a “bigger” share of the market, but Apple has much of the top of the market, the part that actually makes money.
 
CHI-M said:
I think you havne't looked at the data recently, Let's talk US marketshare since that is what matters if you live in the US. Apple marketshare is in mid 50%, google has the remaining. So Apple/Google is a Duoploy, which is no differnt than a Monopoly. Compare that to Verizon/ATT/tmobile. They can't go running around screwing users, they are highly regulated private entities.
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That’s only for smart phones there are lots of other phones sold.
 
neuropsychguy said:
Why stop at a single store? Let’s require a single OS that will work on every device. That way everyone can be miserable together.
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Don't pretend you don't know what he means. I'd be more than happy not needing to purchase the same games on playstation when I switch from xbox (or vice versa).

And I'm not talking about exclusive of course but the exact same items on multi platforms.
 
CHI-M said:
I think you havne't looked at the data recently, Let's talk US marketshare since that is what matters if you live in the US. Apple marketshare is in mid 50%, google has the remaining. So Apple/Google is a Duoploy, which is no differnt than a Monopoly. Compare that to Verizon/ATT/tmobile. They can't go running around screwing users, they are highly regulated private entities.
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Huh? A duopoly is different from a monopoly otherwise it would be called a monopoly.
And world wide apple does not have the market share to be a monopoly.

Why should they open up the App Store FOR IPHONES to everyone. You say “phones” - there are plenty of phones out there that are not built and developed by apple. And there’s plenty of choice in those app stores. Use that… just like windows.
 
I love how he’s phrasing there needs to be a “single, universal” store for everything. I bet he mentions himself and the Epic Store. What a joke.

Use Epic for the freebies, if you like it then buy it on Steam or GOG.
 
TVreporter said:
So who runs/hosts said mega store and what’s the cut to cover the servers, employee costs to maintain the store.

His suggestion is stupid - do we just merge all grocery stores into one? Close all other clothing stores and only sell at Walmart?

Consumers have choices, competition is needed. He just hates Apple’s walled ecosystem.

He agreed to Apple’s rules and then blatantly broke them - yet he continues to whine about a system he initially had no issues joining.
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Why is it people always look at the extreme version of events to try and justify their distaste of Epic and it's CEO? Sweeny talked about an 'all in one store'. He did not say everything else had to close to make that happen which is what your suggesting.

Walmart sells brand name items and some of those brands have their own stores too. There are mobile phone shops that sell multi brand items and yet those brands have their own stores. As I said, the principle of his idea works in the real world so why not in the digital world?

We've taken it for granted the idea of one store selling everything we need, for the most part people have accepted Amazon for selling everything online that we need so why can't there be one app store that has everything that we need? Why is the concept so difficult to understand or accept but yet we accept it everywhere else? Is it because it involves Apple and because this is an Apple forum, anything that goes against Apple's ecosystem is automatically rejected because that is what appears to be happening here in this case.
 
Yeah back in my day we already had that. It was called “the internet.” You would upload your “app” to a store called a “web page.” People could then download and run this app without the explicit and ongoing permission of their operating system vendor.

Of course I then spent the next ten years cleaning Windows machines of malware. But it was mostly adware, and who needs that anymore when the world has become one giant advertisement?
 
joshdammit said:
Are you asking why he doesn’t take down his business first before starting a new one? Because that would make absolutely zero sense. You aren’t forced to use the Epic Games Store on a specific OS. If he had EpicOS and only the Epic Games Store was available to use on it, your snotty comment might’ve made more sense.
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If he is not happy with Another company’s product that he has made billions from he should shut up and leave. Vote with his presence or lack of it. He assumed Apple would miss them, but I believe Apple will do what they did with Logic, Final Cut Pro and now Apple TV+. Get serious about the market and create their own game division with a major AR/VR differentiator. Companies like Epic remind Apple that Partners cannot be trusted so make your own and leave them outside. It’s one of the reasons Arcade has so many smaller studios involved.
 
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