This last week was filled with drama after 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Epic Games picked a fight with Apple over the revenue split that all developers are forced to adhe✨re to, if they want their apps on over a billion iPhဣones around the world.
Apple Takes 30%, And It’s Too Much
The core issue that Epic Games wants to bring to attention relates to the 30% fee that both Apple and Google receive from every in-app purchase in their mobile ecosystem. No matter who you are, and no matter how big yourܫ game, the 30% “tax” is unavoidable if a developer wants access to the millions of potential consumers.
Epic Games Offers Its Developers A Far Better Deal
2019 saw the rise of the Epic Games Store platform as a direct rival to Valve’s Steam, acquiring exclusive rights to several major titles but also making headlines for leaving developers with far more revenue. Rather than the same 30% rate charged by Steam, the same amount that is the focus of the problems with Apple, Epic Games only takes 12% in a revenue split, and eve☂n less in some circumstances.
In the past year, Epic Games has been extremely vocal about how this should be a standard prac💙tice, since it provides developers with far more resources in a competitive market where margins can be razor things, especially for newcomers to the industry. Predictably, no one has followed suit.
Fortnite Is Used To Take A Stand
On August 13, Epic Games made the announcement that would subsequently see 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fortnite removed from both the iOS and Google Play stores. Players would be given the choice of paying a full 20% less for the purchase of V-Bucks if they bypassed A𝕴pple, meaning that they would receive no part of the revenue. Alternative༺ly, players could pay the regular price and continue to use the old method, in which Apple would receive its 30% cut.
The implication here was clear, and Epic Games moved to cut out Apple from the equation entirel𓂃y. It is not certain if Epic Games knew what would happen next, or if 🌠they first hoped that this would force a discourse on the splitting of revenue between organizations. As we know, only a short while later Apple removed the game entirely from its ecosystem, and Google soon followed suit.
Bring In The Lawyers!
After much PR-approved banter from all sides, Epic Games 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:filed a lawsuit against Apple with accusations of the App S꧋tore policies breaking a range of antitrust laws. Epic does not mince words in its lawsuit, beginning 🧔in its declaration of Relevant Facts with a detailed summary of how the iOS is a propriety software that, combined with Google, make up nearly 100% of the worldwide mobile OSs, and that there are around 1.5 billion iOS users
After establishing the size of the current iOS base, Epic moves to paint Apple as a husk of its former self. Yea♚rs ago, Apple would fight hard against monopolization of markets, but now that Apple is the big guy, valued at over $1 trillion, it has become everything is fought against (page 1). The lawsuit calls Apple harmful to developers by creating a mandatory middleman (page 36), imposing unreasonable restraints with oppressive terms (page 4), and much more.
In closing, Epic asks the Court to, “…enjoin Apple from continuing to impose its anti-competitive restrictions on the iOS ecosystem and ensure 2020 is not like ‘1984’.” (page 6), referencing the parody commercial released shortly after Fortnite was removed from the App Store.
What Does Epic Hope To Accomplish?
Epic Games is, relatively speaking, a small company. Valued at $17 billion, the statement seems absurd, but relative to trillion-dollar Apple and $630-billion Google, they are a small fish in a big pond. Is this only about ensuring that Epic Games gets a littl🧸e bit more revenue from its mobile consumer base? Possibly, but it is probably far bigger than Epic Games. The lawsuit is far more likely to be a rallying cry for the thousands of developers who are, relative to Epic, small themselves, and who could never challenge Apple themselves.
Does this sound too altruistic for a company? If the organization were anything other than Epic Games, that might be true, but Tim Sweeney h🔯as been championing this cause of better revenue splits for developers for some time now. What better way is there to fight for the little guy than to challenge the biggest perceived bullies in the school🌺yard?
If altruism is not his actu🌼al motivation, Sweeney could be playing the long game instead. Even if the lawsuit were to fail, and Apple and Google can continue as usual, b𒁏oth consumers and developers will remember that Epic Games is the place to go if they want to be treated better.
Imagine being a video game developer and having two great ideas for a game. One would be for PC, the other for mobile. If they make the same revenue, Epic Games is the pla🥂ce to be while paying only 12% of sales revenue compared to 30%. This is ridiculously simplified example, but the image being created in the coming weeks is crystal clear, that Epic Games wants a fair deal, and Appl⛄e is fueled by greed.
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