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For me to have an informed opinion on this: How much does Walmart or Target "tax" a product developer to distribute and sell their product in their stores?
Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases
211–220 of 408 posts
Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Epic used to charge insane fees for the Unreal Engine too. They really only changed their tune when Fortnite became so successful they could print money via skins.
You don't have to use Unreal Engine, there are many others and you can write your own. Distribution to apple devices requires using apple's store, which is really the core issue here. If IBM/Intel/MS could pull this off in the 80s we'd still live in a stone age.
You don’t have to distribute to Apple devices, there are many others and you can make your own.
Help me understand how this is different?
Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would the iPhone be as successful if it wasn't reasonable?
That seems like a false dichotomy. Anyway, it's unprovable either true or false, because no evidence exists. Let's just assert that it's false, then. Let's say 30% is unreasonable, and that iPhones would be as successful even with yet more unreasonable developer fees.
Would the iPhone be as successful if it took a 99% cut and nobody would bother developing paid apps for it? Probably not. Whether 30% is the sweet spot is unclear, but given that there is plenty of paid apps on the platform, why would it be unreasonable?
Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases
#214The infamous 30% goes back to the time when there where no app stores and we, mainly game developers, had to publish our games thru publishers who used to take a large percent of income, 50% or higher, up to 70% I heard; in order for app stores to become competitive they set the fee to 30% which was an incredibly great deal for us! It seemed to me that the democratization of game publishing finally arrived at that po…
Epic used to charge insane fees for the Unreal Engine too. They really only changed their tune when Fortnite became so successful they could print money via skins.
You're making shit up. Unreal was at the same 5% years before fortnite. albeit with a lower kick in threshold
Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't have to use Unreal Engine, there are many others and you can write your own. Distribution to apple devices requires using apple's store, which is really the core issue here. If IBM/Intel/MS could pull this off in the 80s we'd still live in a stone age.
You don’t have to distribute to Apple devices, there are many others and you can make your own. Help me understand how this is different?
apple is gatekeeping billions of users. unreal engine is not.
Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
But how does it know I bought 13 tokens for $20, or 100 tokens for $149 (best value!)? If the account balance is on the application server side.
The developer has to agree to allow Apple to audit them.
Sounds expensive for Apple, and like it will be enforced unevenly.
Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Personally, Android's ecosystem has never been compelling because of Google. Even barring their unrelenting focus on gobbling more of your data, they can't even keep their services on. Their graveyard is massive. Who cares? If you're developing for Android, you don't need to care about Google killing off Stadia. > How many times has their default messages app changed? It's nuts. Being an Android developer seems lik…
> Again, who cares? I'm using the same messaging apps that I was using 10 years ago. One of my best friends who was using Allo. Or Duo. Or Hangouts. Or Meet. Or whatever. He really loved one of those apps and it got removed/changed/or something. My point was that as a developer, I'd want to ensure users like the platform they're on enough to buy my app. This same friend? He moved to some launcher and just uses Discor…
> My point was that as a developer, I'd want to ensure users like the platform they're on enough to buy my app.
Android is the number 1 platform in the world. Except in the US, where Apple is manipulating teens using "blue bubbles".
Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
>that they will happily charge 30% once they have more marketshare. I don't know. They haven't done as much with UE or any other tools, outside of actually charging for non-games (I'm honestly surprised that the Mandelorian was able to be made with no kick back to Epic at all). Historically Epic has been relatively lenient for how it taxes developers. Say what you want about Sweeny and Fortnite and the Games Store, b…
They're developer friendly because they're trying to get marketshare. They're competing with market leader in Steam which charges 30%. Don't think for a second that they wouldn't charge 30% once they get enough market power. In fact, in the Apple lawsuit, it was revealed that the Epic Game Store was operating on a $300-$400m loss in order to acquire marketshare. Epic has to increase commission fees in order to break…
Their presence as a game store is irrelevant to their developer friendliness as an engine vendor
Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases
#219The infamous 30% goes back to the time when there where no app stores and we, mainly game developers, had to publish our games thru publishers who used to take a large percent of income, 50% or higher, up to 70% I heard; in order for app stores to become competitive they set the fee to 30% which was an incredibly great deal for us! It seemed to me that the democratization of game publishing finally arrived at that po…
I'm on Apple's side for this one but weren't game publishers also funding the development, marketing, and distribution?
While one could argue that a some money had to be spent in the old days to get those boxes in the shelf and off them, these days what does Apple do? Besides being one of the two players in the market?
Clearly someone is being abused. I'm aware they do bring customers, I guess. Not to _you_, specifically, to someone... Maybe you.
Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases
#220Apple collects the rent from the apps that exist withn their walled garden. Epic employs behavioural specialists tasked in making their games addictive and coerce user into spending with micro-transactions. I do not want to take a side in this fight.
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