Right, I'll ask you again you as see the distinction between how a game can be installed on Android, even iOS, without the need for a "play store" though to be fair iOS is a lot more restricted. Heck in China, the world's largest market, you don't even have a Play Store! Why are you discriminating against user choices here? I want China to open up their internet for outside world as well, do you not have an "opinion" on that?
You're not making a (valid) point about the platforms either, because that's what you're saying basically! The platforms are a "showroom" & you can't force them to sell anything & everything at rates which the client, Epic is both a client to Apple & Google as well as a middleman here, is asking for!
That's not a right guaranteed under any constitution, until it is please take this argument elsewhere.
It's either all greed, or none of it is. You can't pick & choose a % cut where one company is greedy & the other isn't!
Okay. How did MS get fined for not offering all browsers on a Windows OS install? They have a dominance that disturbs a fair market. So no, its not all that simple as you think it is and these walled gardens that own the market between just two big players, are definitely eligible for the same antitrust approach. With great power comes equal responsibility.
Its not really about greed. Its about a level playing field and that is something consumers benefit from. Why even argue against it, and for monopolies?
I don't even know how some of you can think that Epic is in the right or has any foothold for suing. Apple, Google or Valve provide a platform that you agree to put your product on. The Epic Games Store was the way to go, not throwing lawsuits around. But let me tell you that even making the EGS and all around it they can't help but being dicks about everything.
On Android you have alternative stores or you can install whatever app from an .apk. But this cunt wants to bend Google with whatever bull to avoid paying for a service. And I'm not defending Google or Apple here but this is the same as opening a mall and having this asshole trying not to pay rent because he is selling houses and because those are outside the premises he shouldn't pay rent.
Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft with their consoles and the same 30% distribution tax are next.
I sincerely hope so, but console is a different one altogether. Mobile and being connected has taken up a prominent position in our everyday lives, it could be considered as essential as internet access itself. App Stores have worked diligently and with active enforcement to pull all apps through that one funnel both Apple and Google desired. Now that they own the market, they start swinging the banhammer, they continuously buy up startups and anything that could pose them a threat. The fact Apple and Google have the same policy and are fought in the same way should tell you enough. Together they own 90%+ of the smartphone market.
Epic's approach is wholly different, and it is also a platform on an entirely different level. NO, they cannot offer their own funnel for data to end up as secure and verified on phones. If a user does not tick a box in settings to allow apps outside the Stores, which also opens them up to any kind of malicious software, they simply won't be able to use Epic's service.
This is not a level playing field and in the context of users of mobile phones having app access, Apple and Google have monopolized the distribution market. Thát needs a counterbalance and a good one is setting a fixed or very low maximum rate on any percentage of sales, in-app or of the app itself. 30%, as it is with Steam, is straight up criminal and to even enforce it over all the money streams INSIDE apps is next level. 30% for some curation and moving a few bits around the globe. For real?
Either Epic will win this, or they actually should and might still win in the future. The current situation has made these tech giants way too powerful as it is for doing way too little work. When EGS started off combating Steam with much lower rates, people said it would never benefit us. This is what you've missed, right here; this is the battle EGS is fighting on our behalf. Lower price of distribution = higher cut towards developers = better software or at least bigger margins to do more. Do you really want to pay 3 dollars out of every 10 to Apple for the software of others? That's 30% of a paycheck - perhaps even YOUR paycheck,
directly if you build your own apps.
And let's be honest. Isn't this how the market SHOULD work? A competitor offers a way more competitive distribution channel for software, but gets roadblocked from doing so. How should that NOT be fought, aside from the technicalities of outdated law and fast technological progress? Rules can and will have to be changed, sometimes, or the situation needs to be placed in the right perspective. I think the latter is what most people here are missing, and they fail to realize they damage themselves and keep an unhealthy balance of power in play.
