Epic Games 'Spent Months' Preparing Lawsuit Against Apple, Codenamed 'Project Liberty'

[jlc1978]

1. Yes, but am i not allowed to complain or criticize?

Sure, and we're free to say why we think the are not warranted.

2. the alternate choices are android or non-choices. wow so many choices. such variety. you’re suggesting linux-based choices which are totally comparable alternatives to iOS and Android. i’m sure gonna love my raspberry piPhone since i can run anything i want! i love choice!

They all offer choices of design, function and capability; an 2021-02-13eh Linux based ones are not Rpi's...

3. just sharing my personal experience. if i could keep my phone jailbroken through software updates, i 1000000000% would. my point is that better things are possible when more freedom is given to users. sideloading is hardly the risk you think it is. people can sideload (extremely inconveniently) right now, and even install pirated apps, yet i don’t recall ever seeing this being a detriment to the iOS ecosystem.

I get your point, but in the end I found jailbroken phones more of a PITA than they were worth; even if I liked some of the features I added. Cydia may have had some cool apps, but Winterboard crashes, strange app behavior was more of a norm than an occasional occurrence, in my experience. I'd rather have an ecosystem that is locked down than one where developers can use unsupported API's etc. By requiring developers too use the app store it provides at least some level of security and assurances apps will behave. I think Apple got this one right.

———-

it boils down to a frustration which i experience far too often:

“is there an app or tool i can use to achieve this goal?”

windows: yes
macos: yes
linux: yes
android: yes
ios: only if the delevloper registers with the ios developer program and submits apps and updates in accordance with apple’s terms and conditions, pending apple’s approval. so you might need to use any other major platform.

Yup; that's pretty much how it is.

 

[I7guy]

Well thats good then, at least somebody is acting in their interests.

Could also boomerang in ways you can’t determine at this point.

 

[Abazigal]

In a way, I am glad it was Epic that started the fight, and not some scrappy upstart developer.

It's like that Superman vs Darkseid fight in the Justice League cartoon series. Superman can afford to go all out because he knows that Darkseid can handle whatever gets dished out.

Epic is fighting an impossible battle through the courts that it hoped would never manifest. It wanted Apple to cave to developer and consumer pressure, which never materialised. If and when Epic loses the court case, a precedent will be set for keeping the 30% cut, which means that Apple has every incentive to dig in their heels and duke it out to the very end.

Time will show that Epic's reckless gamble may well have doomed every developer.

 

[jlc1978]

Epic is fighting an impossible battle through the courts that it hoped would never manifest. It wanted Apple to cave to developer and consumer pressure, which never materialised. If and when Epic loses the court case, a precedent will be set for keeping the 30% cut, which means that Apple has every incentive to dig in their heels and duke it out to the very end.

A bigger issue is not the 30% cut; but the ability of Apple to require apps to use Apple's purchase system. If Apple would win, that means other stores could implement the same system. I don't doubt that many eye Apple's model and would like to be able to copy it and know it would hold up in court.

As a side note, I would hope a court would be loath to decide what is an acceptable margin in a competitive market. That has implications far beyond the app store.

Time will show that Epic's reckless gamble may well have doomed every developer.

Yea, it could make things worse in a number of ways.

 

[Krizoitz]

You are conflating user choice with the restrictive business practices Apple imposes on developers. This suit is largely about the former rather than the latter

First, no I’m not. The post I was responding to was about user choice, so I replied on that topic.

Second, developers are not required to develop for iOS. They can develop for any platform or no platform. If they don’t like Apple’s rules they can choose not to develop for iOS. Forcing Apple to break their system because of some hypocritical developer? No thanks.