|OT| Epic vs Apple/Google - Battle of the Tims

Phoenix RISING

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Apr 23, 2019
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I agree that Apples reasoning to not allow XCloud, GeForce Now, Stadia etc, is selfish because they see a conflict with their own apps.

But as there are competing products with Android devices. I do not think further action is needed. Especially once we factor in market share: Apple has 26% of the market over here and Android is dominating with over 70%.

To turn the usual argument inside out: I believe it is Apples right to sell a restricted product with a store that costumers do not like. There is no law forbidding a bad product and people know what they are buying from day one. But instead of not buying apple products because of the restrictions, people are trying to use the law to force Apple into being a better product. This is baffling to me.

So while an open iOS would be better, I think it is a bit unfair to the competition to use legal force to initiate a change. Personally, I'd jump ship from Android to iOS in an open iphone scenario (for social tracking reasons), but I think Apple has the right to scare away as many costumers as they want to with their politics and they are allowed to do business with whomever they want to.
As long as you are not the dominating market share holder, you are free to make your product as unappealing as you see fit and we shouldn't stop you from doing so.

The real problem here is that there is no good smartphone OS on the market. Apple is restrictive, Google is incredibly aggressive in tracking their costumers. I understand the appeal to change one of them into a product that is actually good.
This is largely my stance on the subject. Thanks.
 
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Yaska

"It depends" - Every lawyer ever,
Dec 18, 2018
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Well there are always other Android variants, but uuuhh... they tend to be even more aggressive trackers in some cases.

On a funny note, the iOS version of Fortnite STILL has the Epic payment option enabled.
 
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ISee

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That's interesting, so people can still buy vbucks on iOS directly through Epic, circumventing apple?
Should the epic lawsuit be dismissed, could apple sue for damage?
 
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warp_

warp_

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yep if they already had it downloaded on ios the option to pay with epic is in there. same as on the play store version. the sideloaded android version only has the epic payment option of course.

as far as suing for damages...not sure? in the us you can sue for any reason but a judge can just toss the lawsuit out if its frivolous.
 
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Yaska

"It depends" - Every lawyer ever,
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I redownloaded it today from appstore. So doesn't even need to be on your device to reinstall if you have it on your account.
 
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warp_

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yeah there's a few levels of app restriction apple can do

remove from appstore: this stops a dev from updating an app but users can download if they got it previously

remove from accounts: this is when a dev license expires or account is closed. the app cannot be redownloaded if deleted

revoke app: this is when they remotely remove an app from devices. don't think it's even been done before but it is possible.
 
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Alexandros

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U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, took over the Epic case Wednesday from another judge. Back in 2013, she dismissed a lawsuit claiming Apple’s apps monopoly cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars in overcharges. Plaintiffs requested a new judge after the U.S. Supreme Court revived the case in 2019, saying Rogers was too hostile to their legal position, but an appeals court denied their request.
This doesn't bode super well for Epic Tim.
 

ISee

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I know you are the lawyer Alexandros .
But doesn't Epic really have a better case against the 30% cut here as the tax is passed on to consumers with Fortnite?

I see a problem with Epic screwing up their math though, because $9.99 - 30% =|= $7.99
I hope this is one of the reasons they fall: Greed

 
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Alexandros

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I know you are the lawyer Alexandros .
But doesn't Epic really have a better case against the 30% cut here as the tax is passed on to consumers with Fortnite?
Not only that, but the argument made by the judge in the previous case (that consumers can't sue for passed-on charges) doesn't apply this time since Epic is the one suing. I say that this doesn't bode well for Epic because, frankly, I find the judge's rationale for the ruling quite bizarre.
 
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ISee

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How many iOS Fortnite players are there actually?
And what's their proportion in relation to PS4, PC, Xbox and Switch?
 
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i don't think epic reveals accounts by platform, and every fortnite account works crossplatform anyway, but they have previously said that mobile is a good percentage of their users. the total number of accounts is around 350 million.

this blog says 125 million ios downloads of fortnite and 4.2 million downloads on the play store, don't know if that's accurate or not though.
play store downloads seem low but fortnite was sideload only at first, plus it's available in alternate app stores and at some point the download became the "epic launcher" not "fortnite" so that probably skews the numbers a lot.
 
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Yoshi

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dex3108 posted this on the other place.

This will be fun.
“On June 30, 2020, Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney wrote my colleagues and me an email asking for a ‘side letter’ from Apple that would create a special deal for only Epic that would fundamentally change the way in which Epic offers apps on Apple’s iOS platform,” former Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller wrote in a declaration. Schiller, whose title is now Fellow, runs Apple’s App Store.
Bu-but Epic is doing this for ALL developers!
 

Alexandros

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A small part from Apple's defence against Epic's request for a restraining order.

It conveniently ignores that Fortnite can be played on numerous platforms with or without support from Apple, even as Epic touts that fact in its advertising and communications to users. See https:// www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/freefortnite-cup-on-august-23-2020 (“Just because you can’t play on iOS doesn’t mean there aren’t other awesome places to play Fortnite.”). And it fails to contend with the fact that its logic would make monopolies of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, just to name a few.
Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo:

 

Alexandros

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apple making an excellent argument. let's open up all those devices too!
I'm all for it! Mad Man Tim setting fire to every walled garden in the industry would be an incredible sight. And the punchline will be that everyone will keep ignoring his shitty store on every platform.

Will they add the tweet when he said that consoles deserved the cut because they invested in their own hardware and all that ?
I certainly hope so! :evilblob:
 

ZKenir

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I'm all for it! Mad Man Tim setting fire to every walled garden in the industry would be an incredible sight. And the punchline will be that everyone will keep ignoring his shitty store on every platform.
Mad Man Tim would probably have every platform holder trying to step on his throat lol
 

Ge0force

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Jan 12, 2019
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I'm all for it! Mad Man Tim setting fire to every walled garden in the industry would be an incredible sight. And the punchline will be that everyone will keep ignoring his shitty store on every platform.
No doubt Epic would start money hatting dozens of the most popular games on other platforms as well. I'm not sure this would be an improvement for us as consumers. It would also benefit only a handful of lucky devs, similar to the current EGS situation.
 

yuraya

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The only thing Epic cares about is to prop up them Fortnite numbers. They don't give a shit about other developers. They don't even care about selling games as they are giving them away and doing corporate buyback voucher programs to make sure they bring people into EGS so Fortnite keeps growing.

Its all about the Fortnite $$$. People who actually think they are doing this shit for some greater good are delusional af.
 

morningbus

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Sweeney's response:
God, I can hear the wiggling of his fingers as they swish-swish this masterstroke.

Hehe, he goes. With the glee and euphoria reserved for a child savant upon discovering "No, you are," as a seering indictment of his oppressors.

My fingies, Tim thinks, and I without a doubt know he calls his fingers "fingies," my fingies can create beautiful vistas and such carnal delight. He's fully erect now, by the way. He continues, aloud, my fingies can create, and, with a smirk starting from one corner and dragging across his face to create a bent, crooked smile, my fingies can destroy.

He's staring into the middle distance now, thinking about having even one more dollar. A tear wells in his eye. His mind drifts to the vast savannah of Africa, the birthplace of man and the predecessor to his kind, the fucking jackal.
 

Swenhir

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Sweeney's response:
That tweet misrepresents the image embedded in it, it's pretty incredible.

He specifically asks to be the alternative on iOS for all those other customers and developers. He isn't asking access for them. He wants to be the access. He's behaving exactly as he is on PC : he wants in on the gatekeeping.
 
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warp_

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Lol fucking Apple eventually biting me in the ass 😅

read about this and wow it's pretty absurd. wordpress sells domains on their website and even though it's not related at all to the ios app and not mentioned at all in the app (as per the developer agreement) apple just said "no more app updates til you add it to your app and cut us in".

something to note for those that want apple to "crush epic" or whatever: this is the kind of bullshit you are rooting to become the standard. apple (and surely google after this) just deciding they want a piece of your business and doing whatever they can to take it.
 
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Doctor Ironic

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i'll admit i'm not sure exactly what you're asking for here but it definitely just seems like you don't like epic.
And it definitely just seems like you don’t like Apple, and are willing to allow the creation of an even worse situation to spite them.

It’s been explained multiple times now that the reason why Apple is acting so extremely in response to this incident is because no developer in the history of mobile development has made this big of a show out of intentionally, knowingly breaking a platform’s Terms of Service as a PR stunt. Epic already has a massive revenue stream in the form of Unreal Engine alone that they could never go bankrupt off of, Fortnite is a fad but it’s an absolutely huge one that’s still worth billions even as it declines, and now they’re stepping into the film industry which will be another unbelievably large source of income for them. They are absolutely positioned to take total monopolies of several industries, and will do things that are significantly worse or at least just as bad once they reach that position.

In order to believe that Epic would somehow do better than Apple in the same position, or that they wouldn't seek to take their place in the oligopoly, you'd have to have utter faith in Epic, which means you rally for the other megacorporation while puffing your chest about how you're such a savvy anti-capitalist. If you seriously believe that altruistic Epic is just doing this out of the good of their hearts, please explain why Epic denies indie developers - whom they claim the EGS is designed to help - from being on their store if they decline to sign an exclusivity contract, such as with DARQ and Skatebird. Please explain why they won't let indie devs on the store if they don't think the game will make enough revenue, such as with Assault Android Cactus. Please explain why their entire business model is about taking choice away from people while they claim to be the champion of the consumer. Why would you believe that Epic, a company that pays developers to change the rewards of their crowdfunding campaigns after it's too late for consumers to pull out of them, is suddenly all about giving consumers options? The only explanation is because you just have faith in the other megacorporation, and you're less concerned with Apple as an oligopolic supercorp and more because of their identity as Apple.
 
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warp_

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i have no interest in how epic would act in the same position, because that's not the world we live in.

i never said epic is doing anything out of the good of their hearts. i have many posts in this thread explaining my position on this. please read them rather than making things up in your head about what i think.

i have an interest in mac remaining an open platform because i am a mac owner. i have an interest in ios becoming a more open platform because i am an iphone owner. if epic is the conduit to that happening, that's fine. doesn't mean i approve of any of epic's circus act tactics or business decisions outside of these suits. i do have an epic account because i have spent time playing fornite but i've never spent any money on it and don't plan to buy any games from their store because i don't approve of their business decisions on pc.

as a side note, i am also a former apple employee and was treated very well by them so i hold no ill will towards the company in that respect. however that doesn't mean i have any loyalty when it comes to defending walled gardens or anti-competitive business practices.
 
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