Apple created this business as it were. They are the ones who originally set the market years ago, and every major company followed. Now, the child-enabling Fortnite crew are upset with their $9B profit and want more - and they are getting nowhere with EGS. They need the mobile market to change badly. And as somebody with privacy concerns I appreciate the fact that Apple has a walled garden. I could easily hack an Android phone with little time and effort, and so can many others. Why? Because it is such an open system. Apple may be the leader here (Android catching fast) but people DO have alternatives. I like the fact that Apple protects my privacy …
AWS invented the cloud market, and nobody is taking them to court for unfair practices. EPIC is in this for themselves, not the consumer. They just weaponize the consumer to increase their profit margin. Devs won’t see an extra dime, but maybe some shareholders will even if EPIC eventually wins their case.
As for MS, they actively damaged any kind of competition to IE and were brought to court by the US government.
Apple may be the ones who set this all up, but everyone else just followed suit. As for a choice, if you look at the sales records most of thee World owns an Android anyway, so those who want side loading apps can buy another phone, and frequently do so already. I prefer to look past gaming at the actual companies and their actions in these matters. For example, under Nadella MS has done a great job of recovering from competition in various markets. Apple has become one of the biggest brands in the World after MS almost drove them out of business. Etc, etc …
The courts will decide this, and EPIC weaponizing twelve year olds is simply pathetic. And MS may be doing well now because they aren’t in the position of power. In the seat of power, they put Sony to shame with some of their business practices. It’s not black and white
Tim Sweeney, while a technical genius, has fallen far in my personal opinion of him. The guy has no integrity left at this point, bemoaning Microsoft’s “walled garden” approach whilst profiting off of another’s and abusing the idea of a walled garden to begin with. That whole UE5 tech demo where they wouldn’t even mention any other platforms, and now we have hard evidence as to why… fucking shameful.
You said you want to look beyond gaming then claim Microsoft aren’t in the position of power? They make more money in a quarter than Sony do in a record year…way more. If you’re comparing the overall businesses Microsoft and Sony aren’t even in the same league. Sony are complete insignificant. If you’re saying specifically about gaming then I don’t think Microsoft’s current positions have much to do with it and everything to do with how the company has changed in the last 20 years. Sony are still the same ultra conservative protectionist company they always were but MS have grown into something since gates stepped down and even more since Ballmer left - they’ve a different ethos. Of course the core is still making money and aggressively so. Lets not get misty eyed about it. But they definitely operate differently now. And bizarrely alongside that they’ve started making even more money. That’s more down to other decisions of course but still.
If you want to say something definitive then right now Xbox is good for the industry from a consumer point. I don’t believe Sony have been in that boat for 20 years in reality.
MS is effectively second in almost every major market except for O365, and they are better for it
Azure trails way behind AWS
Surface trails behind iPad
XBox trails PS, and I don’t count Nintendo - they just do their own thing
Agreed. But when MS has been in the position of power like Sony they’ve been even more corrupt - I would argue that MS is more consumer friendly because they aren’t the market leader. It’s pretty much the nature of capitalism going back to Ma Bell.
This is in my view absolute tosh. Depending upon how you value companies MS are in the top 3 or 4 most valuable in the worlds. 2nd by market cap. To break down their individual markets with the ‘ah but they aren’t the market leader’ so they have to be nice is Twitter level console war nonsense. It’s not in any way how business works. Microsoft are more consumer focussed than they’ve ever been that’s partly reflective of their changing business priorities and partly reflective of a leadership that genuinely believes in more responsible business. Not at the cost of profit and often only to their benefit. But that benefit in gaming intersects with consumer benefit. So we win.
The idea that these things are purely driven by market position is a nonsense. And this narrative that the market leader in a sector has the right to be ‘horrible’ is borne purely out of gaming console warring - nowhere else does such nonsense exist.
