This feels like it's something of a response to Epic's suit about the App Store taking 30% of profits without mentioning Epic at all, and under that lens, this is a good change to the program, and...
This feels like it's something of a response to Epic's suit about the App Store taking 30% of profits without mentioning Epic at all, and under that lens, this is a good change to the program, and if Apple takes more from high yielders than from someone making their first app, that's good for the market, imo.
Epic was making an average of about $1 million every day ($1.2 billion over 2.5 years) from Fortnite on iOS, so this definitely doesn't apply to their situation. Maybe cutting their take in half...
Epic was making an average of about $1 million every day ($1.2 billion over 2.5 years) from Fortnite on iOS, so this definitely doesn't apply to their situation. Maybe cutting their take in half for smaller devs will make Apple look like less of a big-corporation-screwing-over-the-little-guys, but I'm not sure if that's really a key aspect in the Epic suit.
I think a big part of Epic's argument has been that Apple's policy hurts small developers and makes it hard for startups to gain a footing in the marketplace. It was a good strategy, because...
I think a big part of Epic's argument has been that Apple's policy hurts small developers and makes it hard for startups to gain a footing in the marketplace. It was a good strategy, because people usually don't care when it's just two companies both with billions in revenue squabbling. Framing it as a fight for The Little Guy(TM) gave Epic the moral high ground, at least from a PR perspective. This was never really about Epic struggling to make ends meet while paying Apple the same cut they pay Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.
Apple making this relatively small change puts Epic on the defensive, and they are going to have to rely more on the argument that locking devices to a single app store is unilaterally bad, not just bad for startups. This argument has pretty broad implications beyond smartphones, and could throw a wrench into the entire business model used by video game consoles. So I'm not convinced it will work out in Epic's favor.
It does put Epic on the other foot in that they tried to take moral territory in that Apple was fleecing indie developers by locking them into a 30% cut, and now the ball is in Epic's court to say...
It does put Epic on the other foot in that they tried to take moral territory in that Apple was fleecing indie developers by locking them into a 30% cut, and now the ball is in Epic's court to say that this is satisfactory and there can be peace in our time, or make it explicit that this is about Apple and Epic's financials.
The Verge has some response statements from Epic Games and Spotify, along with other reactions: Apple’s biggest App Store critics are not impressed with its new fee cut for small developers
This feels like it's something of a response to Epic's suit about the App Store taking 30% of profits without mentioning Epic at all, and under that lens, this is a good change to the program, and if Apple takes more from high yielders than from someone making their first app, that's good for the market, imo.
Epic was making an average of about $1 million every day ($1.2 billion over 2.5 years) from Fortnite on iOS, so this definitely doesn't apply to their situation. Maybe cutting their take in half for smaller devs will make Apple look like less of a big-corporation-screwing-over-the-little-guys, but I'm not sure if that's really a key aspect in the Epic suit.
I think a big part of Epic's argument has been that Apple's policy hurts small developers and makes it hard for startups to gain a footing in the marketplace. It was a good strategy, because people usually don't care when it's just two companies both with billions in revenue squabbling. Framing it as a fight for The Little Guy(TM) gave Epic the moral high ground, at least from a PR perspective. This was never really about Epic struggling to make ends meet while paying Apple the same cut they pay Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.
Apple making this relatively small change puts Epic on the defensive, and they are going to have to rely more on the argument that locking devices to a single app store is unilaterally bad, not just bad for startups. This argument has pretty broad implications beyond smartphones, and could throw a wrench into the entire business model used by video game consoles. So I'm not convinced it will work out in Epic's favor.
It does put Epic on the other foot in that they tried to take moral territory in that Apple was fleecing indie developers by locking them into a 30% cut, and now the ball is in Epic's court to say that this is satisfactory and there can be peace in our time, or make it explicit that this is about Apple and Epic's financials.
The Verge has some response statements from Epic Games and Spotify, along with other reactions: Apple’s biggest App Store critics are not impressed with its new fee cut for small developers