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Epic direct payment on mobile

epicgames.com

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Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#171

Post by dpcan »

theli0nheart wrote: post #9

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…

If Apple removes Fortnite from the app store, it'll become a class action lawsuit in my opinion. Kids have spent hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars on vbucks on their phones. If you just take that away..... you owe some people some money.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#172

Post by mjamesaustin »

irjustin wrote: post #119

Isn't the cut 70% for inapp purchases? I'm all for this, but there seems to be a 10% gap?

Right, the implication to me is that Epic believes a 10% fee is reasonable since they say on their website they'll lower prices if Apple lowers its fees.

So if Apple reduced fees to 10%, the price to pay with Apple would be the same as it is through Epic direct pay. In other words, Epic doesn't expect a 0% fee.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#173

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

coldcode wrote: post #101
epaga wrote: 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.

Pull it is exactly what I would do. Apple gets a cut of the paid apps, but $0 from free apps who show ads. Take away getting a cut from the paid apps then free apps suddenly cost the developers money—no more free apps. Imagine going to Walmart and telling them what you want them to give you all the revenue. Walmart will tell you exactly what they want to pay you, or you can leave. Maybe 30% is too much, but 0% is a t…

Depends on how much value Apple (not anyone else) puts on having Fortnite on the App Store. They are infamous for disregarding what customers say; sometimes with great results, other times, with less success.

Apple decided, a long time ago, that their platform would not be a gaming platform. Even though they often show off games at WWDC, they aren't really there for much more than eye-candy, to get developers thinking about using the base tech for other purposes.

I would love to be able to play better games on my Mac. I have a few games on the iPad (none from Epic), and I really only play solitaire on my phone.

For all the scorn heaped on Mac as a "toy" computer, it's a terrible gaming platform. iOS, on the other hand, is supposed to be a big gaming platform, so Fortnite might be quite important, there.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#174

Post by sawaruna »

fenomas wrote: post #151
sawaruna wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I'm asking if they will allow people to buy digital PC titles on EGS via direct purchase to the developer and bypass the percentage EGS takes. People are bringing up digital currency or IAP, but if Epic is arguing for 'direct payments in all apps', why would this be limited solely to digital currency and not the digital item itself?

> I'm asking if they will allow people to buy digital PC titles on EGS via direct purchase to the developer People can already buy PC titles anywhere they like. EGS, direct purchase, steam, GOG, twitch, whatever. There's nothing to allow.

>People can already buy PC titles anywhere they like. EGS, direct purchase, steam, GOG, twitch, whatever. There's nothing to allow.

This is unrelated to them supporting their 'direct pay to developers' stance on their own storefront. And no, people can't 'buy PC titles anywhere they like' as every game is not multiplatform / storefront.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#175

Post by celticninja »

alexeldeib wrote: post #155
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All Apple has to do to fix this is allow sideloading. They don't need to change the App Store's rules—they can make them more stringent, actually—and you can set up your child's phone to block non-App-Store installations. Heck, Epic would probably cave and accept the cost to keep Fortnite in the App Store; they tried to go around Google Play, and it seemingly didn't work out.

From the original article, this also sidesteps google play.

I don't think that Google has the same requirements as apple, vis a vis, all payments need to go through apple app store, which includes subscriptions or coin purchases.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#176

Post by kevingadd »

askafriend wrote: post #117
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the discount provided on console stores is 20% and not 30%, I think Epic probably agrees. It looks like the consoles are probably taking ~10-15% cuts compared to Apple's 30%, and Epic doesn't see this as worth challenging at the current time.

Consoles and marketplaces like Steam take 30% of digital game sales.

Valve changed their policies to provide a volume discount for big titles: https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/30/18120577/valve-steam-gam...

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#177

Post by edm0nd »

huac wrote: post #111

How are they justifying this? A linked blog post goes into more detail: https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/announcing-epi... ; but it seems like they are extending the payment processing tools which they built for web to mobile. There are loopholes but not clear which one they're claiming to use (if any).

Fixed URL: https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/announcing-epi...

The ; at the end of yours breaks it

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#178

Post by kevingadd »

balfirevic wrote: post #87
jamil7 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does provide value thats the thing, it's relatively easy to setup IAP and subscriptions, IMO they can keep the 30% but they should just allow apps to offer other payment methods.

> IMO they can keep the 30% but they should just allow apps to offer other payment methods. Would this just result in every app being free, but using (non-apple) IAP to gain access to any content beyond the opening screen?

They can always require that you offer Apple Pay alongside direct payments. They're already doing this for their apple login system, if you offer facebook login etc you're expected to also offer their login system.

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#179

Post by judge2020 »

balfirevic wrote: post #143
mattmaroon wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than the non-Apple part, that's how it pretty much works now. Only 3% and 8% of apps in the stores are paid on Android and iOS respectively, and counted by downloads it's probably much lower. IAPs might be over 99% of revenue. If I were Apple, I'd make my payments optional. They're so seamless that as a customer, I'd probably still use them unless I were getting a substantial discount to do otherwise, and somet…

> Other than the non-Apple part, that's how it pretty much works now. Only 3% and 8% of apps in the stores are paid on Android and iOS respectively, and counted by downloads it's probably much lower. IAPs might be over 99% of revenue. Yes, but all IAPs now go through Apple and they get their 30% cut. > hey're so seamless that as a customer, I'd probably still use them unless I were getting a substantial discount to d…

> Well, every app would easily be able to offer you a 25% discount (30% - 5% to account for transaction fees), since they would not be paying the Apple fee.

Since when have companies passed on fee decreases to their customers instead of accepting the effectively free higher margins?

Re: Epic direct payment on mobile

#180

Post by u10 »

nottorp wrote: post #161
u10 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>games aren't cheaper on the Epic store, in spite of the allegedly smaller cut the store is supposed to take They are literally handing out free games, Total War: Troy, a brand new game, its free today >they're Windows only (and here comes the China reference, they only know about Windows in there) Games will not have first class support for linux for years to come, this is not indicative of the linux platform, simpl…

> Games will not have first class support for linux for years to come, this is not indicative of the linux platform, simply that the market is tiny and developer time is better spent on supporting platforms that are widely used. The fact that there are only X% of gamers on Linux/Mac OS may be justification for you, but why would I go near a store that doesn't support my platform of choice? As I said, they're not offe…

First, you shouldn't take this so personal. Should I be calling Epic game store or Steam bad platforms if they don't support Windows 95? Unfortunately, you are not the target audience, and expecting developers/publishers to pony up the dev time and money to placate an incredibly small portion of the market is a fantasy. Maybe this will change in the future, who knows.

I also take issue with you calling exclusive games 'bribes'. They are looking out for their own self interest, and that includes not paying Steam a 30% cut on all of their sales. It's called competition, not a bribe. If another employer contacted you and said they would offer a 30% pay raise on your current salary, are you really going to say that 1. that's a bribe, and 2. you wouldn't take it?

Also, denying that Fortnite has not made its mark on society is missing the forest for the trees. I don't play it, I have no desire to play it, but I can see how important it's been to the industry and how much it's effected society.

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