My money is on Apple cracking down hard on this. It looks clearly as if Epic remotely activated this direct payment option, thereby bypassing Apple's App Review. Apple will not take kindly to this. Best case scenario for Epic (and Fortnite players): they invite Sweeney in for some hard negotiations. Worst case: Fortnite ends up getting removed from iOS for this.
I am absolutely sure this is a play to give their lawyers more ammo to claim monopolistic practices in the App Store. They want to get shut down.
Curious how this will play out because they explicitly bypass both Google and Apple
From the announcement, V-Bucks are 20% cheaper (... when purchased from epicstore I guess...).
So, you use your browser, login to epicstore with your account, purchase v-bucks at 20% discount and you use those v-bucks in all Epic Games regardless the platform.
My money is on Apple cracking down hard on this. It looks clearly as if Epic remotely activated this direct payment option, thereby bypassing Apple's App Review. Apple will not take kindly to this. Best case scenario for Epic (and Fortnite players): they invite Sweeney in for some hard negotiations. Worst case: Fortnite ends up getting removed from iOS for this.
It’s possible Epic are baiting the app stores, betting that the current anti-trust questions around Apple and Google support a change. Either Apple and Google capitulate to this move by Epic, and Epic wins. Or Google and/or Apple come after Epic, creating a public scene that emphasizes their monopoly-like behavior, and failed lawsuits or government action mean a win for Epic. The third option—the big guys come after Epic, Epic enjoys no support and simply lose—is relatively unlikely right now. So perhaps Epic is forcing the issue, seeing an opportunity for their own gain in the midst of societal gain.
My guess is that this is a gambit to force Apple’s hand during a time when there is the most intense antitrust pressure over the App Store since it’s launch.
If Apple cracks down then it’s just more fuel for the antitrust fire, and potentially evidence in court. If they allow it then it’s precedent that others can use to employ the same tactic. Either way it seems to me Epic is taking a calculated risk to induce change.
My money is on Apple cracking down hard on this. It looks clearly as if Epic remotely activated this direct payment option, thereby bypassing Apple's App Review. Apple will not take kindly to this. Best case scenario for Epic (and Fortnite players): they invite Sweeney in for some hard negotiations. Worst case: Fortnite ends up getting removed from iOS for this.
> It looks clearly as if Epic remotely activated this direct payment option, thereby bypassing Apple's App Review.
Is that against Apple's store terms? Because that's a common feature of ReactNative based app, you can update them by deploying new JS files without having to pass by a new app store release.
Curious how this will play out because they explicitly bypass both Google and Apple
From the announcement, V-Bucks are 20% cheaper (... when purchased from epicstore I guess...). So, you use your browser, login to epicstore with your account, purchase v-bucks at 20% discount and you use those v-bucks in all Epic Games regardless the platform.
It's not an issue that [insert digital good here] is cheaper on the seller's website than in the Apple App Store. What Apple prohibits you from is telling your client that the [insert digital good here] is available for purchase somewhere else or that there's a special kind of a markup on the App Store option.
My money is on Apple cracking down hard on this. It looks clearly as if Epic remotely activated this direct payment option, thereby bypassing Apple's App Review. Apple will not take kindly to this. Best case scenario for Epic (and Fortnite players): they invite Sweeney in for some hard negotiations. Worst case: Fortnite ends up getting removed from iOS for this.
More fuel on the fire for the anti-competitive narrative regardless what the outcome is.
Curious how this will play out because they explicitly bypass both Google and Apple
From the announcement, V-Bucks are 20% cheaper (... when purchased from epicstore I guess...). So, you use your browser, login to epicstore with your account, purchase v-bucks at 20% discount and you use those v-bucks in all Epic Games regardless the platform.
Ballsy, I love it. Hopefully it can be used as evidence in any antitrust actions against Apple, in the US or abroad. It's clear that Apple's behavior negatively impacts consumer pricing.
Yeah I wonder they did a backroom deal with Apple and Google. These backroom deals that Apple/Google are doing is so anti competitive for small app developers and they keep on stressing that they are helping millions of developers. If this is not unfair I don't know what is.
That seems unlikely considering the way that UX looks? They are actively pushing people away from the App Store flow.