Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Criticizes Apple Over App Store Price Increases

[Vulkan]

He even pays developers to make a game exclusive to his own store (and that developers' own store if it exists), which Steam (their competitor) never did.

It's worse than that...

Let's take Unreal Engine... it's free if you make less than xxx amount. However you also have to publish on Epic Store for it to be free.

When you publish to Steam, You get the -30% from Steam (which is totally worth it) but you also have to pay Epic about 35% because you are not publishing exclusively to epic store. So now you are pocketing only 35% oh your own hard work. This is made to look like Steam is bad and treating you poorly.

 

[compwiz1202]

only 30% lmao, if an app makes 1m apple takes 300k.

But you get 700k. And what if without the App Store you got half the sales? You get 200k less, and you have to do all the support, payments, etc yourself

 

[macfacts]

Apples and oranges hi ho, hi ho. Tires already regulated and standardized.

There is a standard for power cables, usb micro/c

 

[ilikewhey]

But you get 700k. And what if without the App Store you got half the sales? You get 200k less, and you have to do all the support, payments, etc yourself

dependent on the genre of app, if its a gaming app, players will still find a way even if it isn't on the app store, payment and support can offload to 3rd party platform for a marginal fee, apple doesn't handle support for you on the technical side, so you still have to hire support or do it yourself.

 

[justperry]

Most of the world is at least somewhat pegged to the US dollar, and Apple is a US company. So even if some countries have not seen as much inflation it's still a fair change if those country's app prices were pegged to 99 US cents in the first place back in 2008.

Nononono....NOPE
Euro $ exchange rates where fairly stable at around 1.20, just a few weeks ago it was 1 to one and even less for a short time.

 

[Abazigal]

He didn’t exactly say why that was a bad thing though. Just that it’s evidently a bad thing that Apple is able to do this unilaterally across the board. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[MyOwnDrummer]

I got no skin in the game, but I have come to despise Epic’s leadership.

 

[subi257]

He is still around ? really

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

'Dog bites man'? I'm tired of this. *shrug*

 

[Stiksi]

If this were a sitcom it would be called Tim Can F* Himself.

So it would be one of those ”decide for yourself” which Tim can do that, or both. 👍

 

[CHI-M]

Microsoft screwed up, they should of did what Apple does, lock down Windows OS, and only allow app devs one way to install and pay royalty. Just imagine back in the days with iTunes how much money MS coulda made off Apple on all those music and app store sales.

 

[AppleFan1998]

This Sweeney is such a sweetie..He doesn't know left from right or up or down..

 

[macneubie]

Take it or leave it. So simple.

 

[Thehangmn]

"Imagine if a landlord told their small business tenant they had to increase their prices without any say in the matter or anywhere else to go."

uh... happens all the time Tim. What are you talking about?

 

[Stunning_Sense4712]

I personally think this is a bad move by Apple since they are basicly daring the EU to regualte their application store and what fees they can charge.

 

[Stunning_Sense4712]

Microsoft screwed up, they should of did what Apple does, lock down Windows OS, and only allow app devs one way to install and pay royalty. Just imagine back in the days with iTunes how much money MS coulda made off Apple on all those music and app store sales.

That would have not flyed back in the days when Microsoft came out considering their were still competiors in the desktop market space. Microsoft has got themselfes in hot water for anti trust issues and if I was Apple I would be careful since an argument could be made about their gatekeeping being an anti trust concern/issue.

 

[Da_Hood]

So many people here don”t get it. Apple is entitled to recover costs, they have zero say in the price set by the developer. What’s next? Minimum allowed price?. Although I understand the confusion as the EU operates as a quasi communist state.

Raising rent equates to increasing the current 30% commission, not forcing a price increase. In fact this is probably illegal under EU law as it is potentially a restriction of trade if the involuntary price increase leads to reduced sales. Class action incoming.

Apple has misguidedly applied a blunt instrument to fix their currency issue.

 

[1557750]

I thought Tim Sweeney was a movie about a barber or something.

Don’t mind me, carry on.

 

[Stunning_Sense4712]

So many people here don”t get it. Apple is entitled to recover costs, they have zero say in the price set by the developer. What’s next? Minimum allowed price?. Although I understand the confusion as the EU operates as a quasi communist state.

Raising rent equates to increasing the current 30% commission, not forcing a price increase. In fact this is probably illegal under EU law as it is potentially a restriction of trade if the involuntary price increase leads to reduced sales. Class action incoming.

Apple has misguidedly applied a blunt instrument to fix their currency issue.

Apple as a private bussiness can charge fees but they can be regulated by government's. In addition I think the biggest issue is Apple will not allow users to side load apps which removes the developers ability to choose if they want to pay Apple to be on their digital storefront or be a downloadable app on their website.

 

[TheWatchfulOne]

actually, if an app makes less than 1m, apple's cut is reduced to 15%, for smaller developers.

Yeah, I might have got that mixed up.

 

[ilikewhey]

Take it or leave it. So simple.

lol when eu throws down regulation for apple's 30%, take it or leave it too right?

 

[dwaite]

It's called inflation mr Sweeney Todd.

App Store prices are pegged to the USD - they don't increase by inflation. Instead, the price you pay in another country is based on the exchange rate and local taxes.

The Euro is currently weaker than the dollar, so a $.99 USD purchase is going to be over 1 Euro, plus each will have relevant taxes for the respective localities. One would expect if the euro gains strength then the price will go back down.

Developers can change their price, but it is a change to the USD price - you can't set territory-specific pricing for app purchasing or in-app purchases. Giving relief to users who are suffering the change in the Euro will also give a discount to those buying from the US App Store.

However, you _can_ set territory-specific pricing for in-app subscriptions. So someone with say a video or software subscription as part of their app can choose whether they want to increase/decrease rates on their own leisure, on a market-by-market basis. If you elected to do this, the prices you charged in the listed countries did not change - although the tax increase mentioned will impact your customers.

 

[svish]

Epic CEO is unnecessarily getting involved with Apple’s business.

 

[CarlJ]

Why give this guy oxygen? He lost, he's a perennial loser, and he should be left to squalk into the ether.

Because putting up this article "increased viewer engagement", as shown by the fact that you're commenting here.

 

[CarlJ]

But I thought Epic was for a free and open marketplace?

I'm a little confused by that phrase "illegally obtained" under the picture - are these "V-bucks" something that somebody stole with a gun, or from someone that hacked into Epic's servers? Or is it just a case where Epic doesn't like the way somebody got legit "V-bucks" (say, buying from a reseller in one country and using in another). I don't think the latter would be "illegal".