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Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Calls Apple's App Store a 'Disservice to Developers'
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I was just going to ask, since I just bought my son some V-bucks via the Nintendo eStore: is Nintendo not charging anything to Epic, when I buy $8 worth of Fortnite V-Bucks? Did Google not charge something for it? Why is Apple constantly singled out by Sweeney?
You are completely ignoring that was taken pre-App Store for physical distribution was closer to 50% and the cost of entry was exorbitant. Just look at any video game platform and Tim's point is immediately revealed to be specious and vacuous. To develop for Sony, you need an extremely expensive dev kit (it costs more than $99/year) and then be selected to be listed in their "walled garden" store that does no real validation of the apps at all (look at Cyberpunk and why it was completely pulled as an example). AND they take a 30% cut just like Apple because when they first started the App Store, that 30% cut was a competitive advantage compared to the fees charged by others.
Epic games is a disservice to thair customers.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has called Apple's App Store, which has helped app makers earn over $260 billion since its launch, a "disservice to developers" that forces them to treat their apps as "sub-par."
Sweeney made the comments in an exclusive interview with the Financial Times, where he repeated Epic Games' previous talking points about Apple and how it is "anti-competitive" and "monopolistic." Sweeney said that Apple has "won fairly" in persuading customers to buy its hardware products but claims that forcing customers to use the App Store is unfair.
According to Sweeney, Apple uses its fair advantage in hardware to "gain an unfair advantage over competitors and other markets. And that breaks all the competitive dynamics that kept the tech industry healthy in the past."
Sweeney criticized the App Store as a platform itself, saying that despite Apple's attempt to market it as a service, it's actually a "disservice to developers." "The app store is not a service. The app store is a disservice to developers. The app store forces developers to treat their software in a sub-par way to give customers a sub-par experience to charge uncompetitive handling and processing fees to inflate the price of digital goods," the CEO of Epic Games said.
Apple has said that the App Store since its launch has helped developers earn over $260 billion and has fostered an iOS app economy that has created over 2.2 million jobs in the U.S. alone.
Epic Games has been embroiled in a massive lawsuit against Apple, concerning the App Store, that started in 2020 and is now entering its second year. The suit and its history may be confusing for some, but we have all the details in our guide.
Article Link: Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Calls Apple's App Store a 'Disservice to Developers'
They all do. Sony will even limit where you can spend primogems (Genshin) so I imagine they impose the same restriction on vbucks and the like. I do not know about the other platforms.
The answer to your question will cost you TenCent.
Not sure where I stand on this. It seems to me that Apple wanted to create something different with iOS, it seems like Epic would like them to just replicate the model they have for the Mac and MacOS. On the Mac, you can download software from anywhere, and from a Mac App store that came later. Apple can have different models for different lines of products, and consumers and developers can decide which platform is best for them.
Kind of a grand canyon between how smart Sweeney is and how smart Sweeney thinks Sweeney is.
Yup... the App Store has been one of the most successful ventures ever. He's just a petty jealous individual. He's annoying because he is a manipulative liar and pretending he cares about the little guy when all he wants is a bigger slice of the pie for himself. Despicable really.
So, in Epic's world, Apple is "anti-competitive" and "monopolistic." Right, so Epic should open up it's proposed in-game purchasing to third-party methods. For example, players should be allowed to buy and sell in-game assets on Ebay completely bypassing Epic's systems. Okay. Got it.
This is one large company attacking another large company for having a successful businesses model that precludes them from implementing their own similar model. Enlisting "developers" as a heterogeneous class is a disingenuous straw-man argument. If Apple's model was such a "disservice", they would not be fighting so hard to replicate it with an identical one they control.
People simping for Apple in this is just sad.
Nobody would accept the premise that creating a computer operating system would entitle you to a 30% cut of every application developed for it, nor would anyone accept the premise that Microsoft or Apple should have total control over what applications are available for the general public to install or run. Nobody would accept the idea that Apple should get a cut of physical goods purchased through the Amazon or Ebay iOS apps.
Nobody would accept the premise that creating a computer operating system would entitle you to a 30% cut of every application developed for it, nor would anyone accept the premise that Microsoft or Apple should have total control over what applications are available for the general public to install or run. Nobody would accept the idea that Apple should get a cut of physical goods purchased through the Amazon or Ebay iOS apps.
You aren’t taking Epic’s point of view. On their store, they don’t have to give anyone a cut. They think they should be able to install their store on iOS.
They aren’t making that same demand to Sony, Nintendo, and MS.
We still have a choice. I choose to not buy anything Apple outside of iPhones and iPads. I can still choose Android too.
Clothing manufacturers earn less than 70% of what customers pay for their clothes in flagship retail stores like Nordstrom’s or Dillard’s. Even large box stores like Costco mark up products over 50%. both are why many manufacturers have resorted to the use of company owned outlet stores to cut out the large retail outlets.
But none of this matters. Apple hardware market share for computers is less than 20% of all computer sales, iOS product sales are less than 50% of all tablet plus cell phone sales. There are competitive alternatives to the Apple ecosystem. Apple is not a monopoly.
But none of this matters. Apple hardware market share for computers is less than 20% of all computer sales, iOS product sales are less than 50% of all tablet plus cell phone sales. There are competitive alternatives to the Apple ecosystem. Apple is not a monopoly.
If Epic ran their own mobile App Store, it almost certainly would require exclusivity from their-party developers and implement many similar limitations and lock-ins based on IP/frameworks, payment processing, etc.. as Apple does. It would be touted as giving consumers 'choice', but, in reality, it would just require us to divide our shopping and spending across multiple stores will little or no overlap in offerings.
Maybe they would charge developers less commission on transactions, maybe they would have different terms on allowable practices that would appeal to them, but ultimately, none of that would matter because every commercial "store" has to have a business model and only work if there are revenue and profits. And a company like Epic would extract every cent of value out of it they possibly could or there would be no reason to do it in the first place.
exactly because they don't want share their profit with the platform creator they wanna publish their fartnight on
Except Apple isn't getting a cut of amazon or uber transactions.
Apple has aggregated the best customers in the world. They make it easy to make purchases via iTunes, while safeguarding my credit card details from developers. The iOS App Store, while not a perfect system, is still able to keep out malware, manage my subscriptions and enforce measures like ATT. The absence of side loading means lower incidence of piracy, so more app copies sold.
In my opinion, this is not unlike xbox or playstation platforms where the same 30% of game sales to towards Microsoft and Sony respectively. We can debate over whether 30% is a reasonable percentage or not, but the bottom line is that I do believe Apple is ultimately entitled to some renumeration for creating the platform, the tools that enable developers to create the apps that they do, as well as their role in facilitating transitions between developers and end users.
You say I simp for Apple. At least I know where I stand in Apple's ecosystem. Consider that Apple has, with ATT, been able to deal a blow to Facebook that other countries' legislators couldn't (or wouldn't). If the world's governments can't reign in these bad actors, then stand aside and let Apple do what others couldn't.
It cost less to sell on the epic store with a 12% fee or 0% fee for in app purchases if you use your own payment system.
and why would you need to lower the price for other stores? Isn’t it illegal for a company to demand they have the lowest price?
Well almost exactly. Because currently everyone is saying. It should only be to apples advantage. Why not balanced? Or why not in developers faivour?
Epic gives developers the option to pay zero percent or 12% depending if they use their own purchasing mechanism or epics mechanism.
I bet you would call developers then entitled for wanting a lower fee. And that a 70% is the industry standard etc etc.