Epic's Case Against Apple in Australia Might Be Over

[I7guy]

Part of Epic's suit against Google includes interference with device manufacturers by Google to prevent them from shipping the Fortnite launcher preloaded on their devices. Given Google's monopoly over the mobile device operating system market on the OEM side, this might actually get them in trouble similar to what happened with Microsoft who moved to block OEMs from shipping Netscape. Google is in a more similar position to Microsoft in the 90's than Apple given that Apple is selling a device with software integrated versus Google's Android operating system and the separately licensed Google Mobile Services that third party OEMs leverage.

We can only hope the google prevails in this instance. Software vendors suing google because they are not including their software becomes bloatware, which is not best for consumers.

 

[ervingv]

I hope Epic loses because I remember a time when developers/companies did not try to throw their weight around and demand they be treated like gods and not pay for anything.

I guess Apple should lockdown the Mac too for consistency. 🙄 Besides, without the developers creating apps, iOS would not be so great.

 

[jhollington]

I don't understand the following quote from "epic", how exactly are Australian users paying more for their apps? Is that really happening? Here's what "epic," said:

"We remain committed to our fight for increased competition on digital platforms in Australia and around the world. Australian consumers have the right to install apps from the sources they choose and avoid paying excessive prices for apps. We will continue supporting the Australian government and regulators in their pursuit of fair competition in mobile app marketplaces."

Here, I'll fix that sentence for Epic so that it's more honest...

"We remain committed to our fight for increased competition on digital platforms in Australia and around the world. Australian consumers have the right to install apps from the sources they choose and guarantee that we get 100% of the revenue from the excessive prices they pay for our apps.. We will continue supporting the Australian government and regulators in their pursuit of fair competition in mobile app marketplaces."

Anybody who believes Epic's repeated claims that it's going to lower its prices is clearly dreaming in technicolor. Last summer's stunt was just to prove its point, but there's absolutely no way that they wouldn't sneak those prices right back up to what they were before and pocket the extra 30 percent. Apps and in-app purchases are sold for whatever the market will bear, and users don't care where they money is going — they just care what they're paying.

I'm not even faulting Epic for this one — any business would do exactly the same thing. It's just a blatant lie for Epic to claim that this is about passing the savings on to consumers. It reminds me of the late eighties in Canada when the government switched from the FST (which was buried in consumer prices) to the value-added GST. The politicians loved to tout how this would "lower prices" because the big bad hidden 13.5% FST would go away, and the lower then-7% GST would be added on top. Of course, the end result was predictable... Every business kept their prices exactly the same as before, pocketing the extra 13.5% and adding the GST on top of that.

 

[pasamio]

We can only hope the google prevails in this instance. Software vendors suing google because they are not including their software becomes bloatware, which is not best for consumers.

It may become bloatware but when you have a monopoly in the market with over 90% market share as Android does, I don’t think a court will agree that threatening OEMs that you won’t license pieces that many consider a part of Android if they ship Fortnite will stand.

As much as Epic have been asshats, I don’t feel they should lose this aspect to Google. This would give Google the ability to veto any third party developed software from third party manufactured devices when it poses a threat to Google.

 

[JMacHack]

Valve has tried to work in the hardware space building the Valve Index, Steam Link and Controllers, trying to get up Linux Steam PC alternative to consoles. Valve also released Half-Life Alyx and also some games around the DOTA franchise. They certainly got first mover advantage with their store platform, originally to support their own games, and have stagnated since then but it's not like they're not trying new business angles beyond just the store.

Ultimately though Sweeney sees these stores that make money from third party developers in a much more direct way than just engine sales provides and he wants a cut of that market. And in that perspective none of the other aspects matters.

Valves hardware efforts have almost all failed miserably. Steam Machines flopped, the controller was unweildy, Steam Link unusable, and the only success they’ve had hardware wise was the Index, which has been middling but better than the Facebook-owned Oculus.

Artifact was a test of how far they could push monetization in their games (thank god that failed), and HL Alyx lacked what made the Half-Life series great since all of the original writing team left due to Valve not doing anything.

The only success they’ve had is
Working on Proton, a fork of WINE, that is actually really good apparently.

Sweenys a maniac but Epic is a better game/engine dev than Valve in 2021.

 

[I7guy]

It may become bloatware but when you have a monopoly in the market with over 90% market share as Android does, I don’t think a court will agree that threatening OEMs that you won’t license pieces that many consider a part of Android if they ship Fortnite will stand.

As much as Epic have been asshats, I don’t feel they should lose this aspect to Google. This would give Google the ability to veto any third party developed software from third party manufactured devices when it poses a threat to Google.

I don't feel Epic should prevail with this, it opens the door for a lousier consumer experience.