Sony and Microsoft also take a 30% cut on all digital purchases, which is odd that epic only went after apple.
It will be interesting to see when epic expands fortnite, they have started by doing live events, I think next they add more and more things which are not battle royale, maybe they will start with offering people to have there own houses, maybe they will add a portal where u walk through a portal to a movie location but the visuals change from fortnites to photorealistic art style. I wonder what will happen when they sell games inside “fortnite world” you can play unreal tournament inside fortnite etc etc, fortnite will be a platform, not a store. Probably what playstation home or 2nd life wanted to be, but they could not pull ot off. Epic being a game engine company and having one of the most popular games in the world I think if anyone is going to pull it off there no company in a better position then EPIC.
I say this all the time but there’s a big difference between mobiles and games consoles.
Mobiles are just computers now, the stores on these computers are needlessly charging 30% for no reason other than greed. Apple don’t even allow the store to be bypassed by us. There’s also billions of these computers in use. There are also only two options.
There’s a couple of hundred million consoles in use and they are heavily subsidised. They would not exist without the 30% in their current form. We saw what happens without the subsidy with Steam machines.
So from Epics POV if they want they 200m consoles still to around then the 30% is justified. With mobiles it isn’t.
The central issue wrt iOS is that is borders on ubiquity so much so that EPIC will argue that it is an essential market all on its own, therefore antitrust restrictions should kick in and competitors should be allowed to erect their own competing marketplaces on iOS.
This is fundamentally different than consoles since those are not required for modern living like a cell phone is. There is no chance at all that EPIC will push their argument towards consoles because of this. Their argument simply does not apply to consoles, which is why they aren’t going after Sony/MS.
If that’s the case, might need to change the name. It isn’t like a Pocket PC or anything, and that will be an easy argument for Apple to make. It will be interesting, but it doesn’t look like Epic has much of a case, especially if they cannot prove a smart phone is a general computing device. And be certain that Apple will bring all of Epic’s questionable practices to light before this is over, including their privacy issues and terrible security. I’m interested to see if Apple will even allow Epic back on the store within the ToS, considering they terminated all their accounts within the courts orders.
I just want to say if people think Epic isn’t going to go after consoles, you should rethink that. What Epic is doing has been planned for a long time, and trust me this is just part of it. They are going after Apple because it is the best target to start with. It is easier to paint Apple as a bully, Apple already the courts (governments) looking into them, Phones are becoming necessary devices unlike consoles, they can get public support easier, etc…
Epic didn’t go after consoles to start because they definitely wouldn’t win going that angle but that doesn’t mean if they win against Apple they won’t use that against consoles. If the courts rule that closed ecosystems are against the law that automatically applies to consoles. They don’t have to go after consoles if they win against Apple, it is essentially an automatic win across the board.
Sony would be hardest hit, but maybe they already are working an angle since they invested in Epic recently.
Its worth noting that if the 30% they get from digital sales were to go away, it’d just be a return to the profit margins of a retail sale. The business model in the past has been driven by licensing fees, digital just allows them to double dip.
The console makers are also willing to make deals with companies as well.
And finally Apple countersues Epic for commission theft and breach of contract. That is open and shut - please be aware I absolutely want Epic to fail. Maybe I could have listened to their arguments if they weren’t so childish in the way they went about this. Mobilizing little kids against Apple, getting kicked off of the Apple store for breach of contract, etc …
I hope Sweeney is fired and replaced by somebody remotely competent for Epic’s sake - he’s an idiot who has let Fortnite success go to his head. The countersuit damages are not going to be small given how airtight Apple’s case appears to be, and investors will want answers. And I’m fine with a nice, secure walled garden on my phone. Epic’s next target will definitely be the consoles if they win.
