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Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

techcrunch.com

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Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#321

Post by mckn1ght »

lxgr wrote: post #47
hizanberg wrote: post #18

If I had a Customer that spent years relentlessly complaining about my Company, I know I wouldn't want to have them as a Customer. It does present an interesting question on whether a Company can be forced to have a bad actor as a Customer, I guess this will be decided in the lawsuits to come.

Companies in quite a few industries have a duty to do business with you, with very few limitations. For example, in some countries/cities, taxis generally can't refuse transportation to you, assuming you're able to pay and not endangering the driver. Having publicly and repeatedly expressed a dislike for taxis, or even wearing a t-shirt saying "taxis in $city are an overpriced monopoly" would not be a valid reason to…

Taxis in many cities operate under the authority of a government institution [0], so it makes more sense that they have a duty to do business with the public.

Whereas one can often experience waiting for a Lyft/Uber where drivers repeatedly decline service after initially accepting.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_medallion

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#322

Post by chatmasta »

Findeton wrote: post #316
chatmasta wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a monopoloy on distribution channels of iOS Apps. There is no way, other than through the App Store, for a developer to sell software to the owner of an Apple device such that the owner can execute that software on their own device.

So create another phone platform and compete.

What about the users who purchased an iPhone with the expectation that they would be able to execute software from Epic on their phone?

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#323

Post by Muromec »

vineyardmike wrote: post #291
pipo234 wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose they could do that, but wouldn't they still need to pay the 1.8B? [Added] ... And continue to support products and services already sold?

Why would they? They’d be beyond any courts jurisdiction, but of course they could never return.

That’s not how cooperation treaties and jurisdictions work. They will totally pay that 2B and also pay for the privilege of running after them and the interest rate too.

It’s not a five year old who can do something mean and then just quickly run home.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#324

Post by lapcat »

vineyardmike wrote: post #286
gray_-_wolf wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, you know, they could just comply with our laws...

How much of that revenue is threatened by DMA? If they stand to lose most of their revenue or profits by complying with the laws, why bother? It seems crazy that Apple is going to die on this hill, but I’m really curious what the accountants are sending the execs. I could see them willing to gamble a chunk of revenue to prevent every other market from trying to write similar laws, especially if they’re losing that re…

80% of Apple's revenue is hardware.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#325

Post by Muromec »

izacus wrote: post #180
ergonaught wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More likely, Apple needs to withdraw entirely from the EU and see what happens.

Hahaha, have you seen the firing frenzy the US execs were expected to execute for a SLIGHT DIP in revenue and a few % in cost of a loan? :D And you expect those same share holders to just support leaving of a massive market? Cook would be taken through NYSE by his nether regions by just thinking that. This whole idea is nonsense. And even if, by any bizarre chance (it's 2020s after all) it happens, we'll suffer with.…

Motorolas are a thing again and are quite good.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#326

Post by AnthonyMouse »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #69
mrtksn wrote: post #45

I wonder why Apple doesn't open up their platforms to have everything best on their devices instead of fighting and agonising developers and governments. Yes yes, the commission is nice but they might be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. I mean, Apple is amazingly good in some areas but in some other areas their products are used only because they don't give a choice and they intent to keep it this way. Th…

Steve hated industry standards. The only time he ever said anything else was when every web site in the world ran on flash and iphone couldn't do flash. Every iphone user was reminded daily about how kneecapped it is when they can't pull up the web site for the restaursnt to check hours or call up for a reservation. That kind of life experience was his entire focus and his showpiece product failed utterly at it. And…

> Steve hated industry standards.

> The only time he ever said anything else was when every web site in the world ran on flash and iphone couldn't do flash.

NeXTSTEP, the Steve Jobs thing that got renamed as Mac OS X when Apple bought it, was based on BSD Unix. In the early 2000s, Apple produced and used a lot of open standards. "Darwin" was open source. Bonjour is mDNS. Apple developed CUPS and open sourced it.

Then they got big and greedy and stopped.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#327

Post by [deleted] »

mrtksn wrote: post #45

I wonder why Apple doesn't open up their platforms to have everything best on their devices instead of fighting and agonising developers and governments. Yes yes, the commission is nice but they might be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. I mean, Apple is amazingly good in some areas but in some other areas their products are used only because they don't give a choice and they intent to keep it this way. Th…

[deleted]

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#328

Post by Findeton »

chatmasta wrote: post #322
Findeton wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So create another phone platform and compete.

What about the users who purchased an iPhone with the expectation that they would be able to execute software from Epic on their phone?

They were wrong in their supposition. It's part of free market process, asymmetric information.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#329

Post by 015a »

hizanberg wrote: post #18

If I had a Customer that spent years relentlessly complaining about my Company, I know I wouldn't want to have them as a Customer. It does present an interesting question on whether a Company can be forced to have a bad actor as a Customer, I guess this will be decided in the lawsuits to come.

Epic also doesn't want to be Apple's customer. No one would describe the relationship between Microsoft and Epic as "Epic being Microsoft's customer" because they distribute the Epic Games Store and Fortnite on Windows (Xbox console distribution notwithstanding; there it is more of a customer relationship).

Apple forces everyone who wants access to 50% of the mobile computing market into a customer-oriented relationship, and then complains when not everyone Thinks The Same as they do. Its disgusting behavior.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#330

Post by ben_w »

benced wrote: post #300
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there haven't been any threatening noncompliance Do we have neutral sources for these claims and emails? Apple said Sweeney threatened to breach contract and didn’t repudiate in private. Epic claims it didn’t threaten and did repudiate. We’re in a he said she said absent independent sourcing.

The emails are from this post ( https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/apple-terminated-e... ). The source for the tweets (from your original comment: "Sweeney allegedly tweeted that he would breach his contract with Apple") are Sweeney's Twitter feed which you can read as well as I did. Did you find any threatening non-compliance?

Perhaps it's just me, but my gut says that EpicGames dot com might, possibly, just might, not be an entirely neutral source on the topic of "was Epic naughty?"

Even with screenshots, and assuming no false claims (which IIRC are entirely legal so long as you don't swear under oath), there's plenty of ways to mislead by omission while saying only true things.

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