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Epic direct payment on mobile

epicgames.com

21–30 of 371 posts

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#21
post #10

Finally someone stands up to the monopolists!

Right, another monopolist trying to fill their garden. Epic is literally buying the companies behind long established games, removing game support for alternative OSes, and eventually only allowing access from "the epic store".

No matter who wins between Epic and Apple human people lose. They're both walled garden monopolists.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#22
post #3

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 probably just a webpage that is loaded.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#23
post #10

Finally someone stands up to the monopolists!

Right, another monopolist trying to fill their garden. Epic is literally buying the companies behind long established games, removing game support for alternative OSes, and eventually only allowing access from "the epic store". No matter who wins between Epic and Apple human people lose. They're both walled garden monopolists.

Epic has no "walled garden". The PC is an open platform. An iPhone is not. If I don't like the Epic store, I can install software from other sources just fine. Good luck with that on iOS.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#24
Per the App Store Review guidelines: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#una... If payment is taken IN the app, not using Apple Pay, and not to an approved non-profit, it's in direct violation and should be removed.

I've had to update multiple apps that took donations, in order to pay for development work, and Apple absolutely won't let that fly anymore. On Apple's behalf, this unacceptable, illegal, and infuriating. I might consider joining a class-action lawsuit like this one: https://www.hbsslaw.com/uploads/case_downloads/apple-dev/201...

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#25
post #15
post #3

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.

Depends, this is allowed to some degree, buit if you change functionality you have to go trough the review process. Changing the payment method definitely should go trough the review process.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#26
post #14

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 chan…

Exactly my take on it as well. Very interested to see what happens.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#27
post #14

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 chan…

Also, the legal standard in the US is laser-focused on whether consumer prices have gone up as a result of a company's practices.

What better demonstration could Epic possibly create of how the App Store leads to price increases?

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#28
post #10

Finally someone stands up to the monopolists!

Right, another monopolist trying to fill their garden. Epic is literally buying the companies behind long established games, removing game support for alternative OSes, and eventually only allowing access from "the epic store". No matter who wins between Epic and Apple human people lose. They're both walled garden monopolists.

For a monopolist they provide pretty compelling terms compared to Steam. If anything they are a healthy competitor to Steam, not only for developers but for consumers as well.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#29

This puts Apple in a very tough spot. Last week, Tim Cook was questioned in an antitrust hearing re: Apple's anticompetitive practices (along with Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai). The spotlight is already pointing right at them, so any move they make here is going to be noticed by lawmakers. If they remove Fortnite from the App Store, Apple will probably be seen as the bad guy. After all, Epic is not…

I bet that Epic execs also talked behind the scene with other execs in the industry to garner support in case Apple cracks down hard on Epic and removes Fortnite from the app store. If more studios/developers join the cause, they can definitely apply big pressure on Apple.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#30
post #3

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…

Edit: It seems like Play Store has a category restriction on Games without exceptions.

Google doesn't force payments to go through its channels based on some conditions. A lot of app developers including Apple makes use of this.

So it might just survive on Play Store.

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