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Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

9to5mac.com

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Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#401

Post by sangnoir »

bevekspldnw wrote: post #345
lapcat wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can be completely on board with the DMA but still see Epic's behavior as entirely profit motivated and "freeing Fortnite" should not be any official's priority. The Digital Markets Act is all about profit-motivated businesses. It regulates markets, not charities. It's not anti-profit at all, just pro-competition, and Apple was attempting to stifle competition.

Precisely! This all about market competition which may both spur new technologies and lower prices for consumers. The entire point of DMA is to make sure platforms can’t use lock in to prevent others from joining the market for digital goods and services. What terrifies Apple isn’t Fortnite, it’s that Epic will make a *better* AppStore.

I hope the folk at Valve have been busy working on this - Steam for iOS and Vision Pro could be great!

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#402

Post by Jensson »

LeafItAlone wrote: post #395
agust wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the EU immediately stepped in and explained them what the consequences of breaking the law would be, and Apple budged, caved, backed down. Not getting out of this one.

That only makes sense if we assume Apple’s world class legal team didn’t see what every lay person could. Rolling back the decision is not going to get them out of the eyes of the regulators and they must have assumed that going into it. Why give the EU even more ammo against you. My guess is that they saw that all happening but Epic provided them a letter saying they double pinky promised, cross their hearts, will o…

> That only makes sense if we assume Apple’s world class legal team didn’t see what every lay person could.

Apple banned Epic the day before DMA came into effect when doing this sort of thing was still legal, they 100% saw this. They did probably bet on the chance EU would overlook it if they did it before the law came into effect, they lost that bet but they thought it was worth a try.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#403

Post by whynotmaybe »

mike_d wrote: post #378
znpy wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if the US had equivalent regulators as well...

We would all be carrying around government approved Windows Mobile phones. Remember all this DMA stuff is coming from the same organization that wants to force Chrome and Firefox to accept TLS certificates issued by governments for any website they want: https://therecord.media/eu-urged-to-drop-law-website-authent...

This brings me the regret of all the time I spent building windows phone apps.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#404

Post by ben_w »

mike_d wrote: post #386
ben_w wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two days ago I wrote that didn't fully trust Epic's version of the events posted on EpicGames.com, and by the same logic I'm sure not going to trust Apple's version as posted to 9to5Mac.com """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.""" — works just as well in…

> I wrote that didn't fully trust Epic's version of the events posted on EpicGames.com, and by the same logic I'm sure not going to trust Apple's version This fallacy plays out a lot in politics. "Epic has lied in the past, so all parties involved must be lying."

That's not what I'm saying.

I can't take both of them on faith alone, because at least one of them must be wrong. I'm not qualified to decide between them, so I should weight them equally. Public statements from the parties, or fans of the parties, are reasonable to suspect of being tactical with the truth even when no falsehoods are stated, rather than giving a complete picture.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#405

Post by Dalewyn »

overgard wrote: post #376
iamthirsty wrote: post #4

From DF a few days ago[0] : > The termination of Epic Games Sweden AB’s Apple developer account was communicated in a letter from Mark Perry, a lawyer representing Apple, to Epic’s lawyers: > Mr. Sweeney’s response to that request was wholly insufficient and not credible. It boiled down to an unsupported “trust us.” History shows, however, that Epic is verifiably untrustworthy, hence the request for meaningful commit…

I don't really understand the notion that Sweeney's original response was terse or insufficient. He said exactly what needed to be said (good faith effort to follow the rules) succinctly and professionally. Should he have offered a pinky swear or a blood oath? Or an essay pledging his allegiance? I generally like Apple and their products but in this instance they came across as bitter and petty.

[flagged]

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#406

Post by wolfendin »

jncfhnb wrote: post #130

Apple’s behavior largely makes sense given what a huge share of their profits their racketeering of customer access earns them. If you ever wanted to see regulation pains as the cost of doing business, this is it. But banning epic was just pathetic baby behavior. I hope epic launches the epic game store for iOS and its dogshit but cheaper and the gacha gravy boats all jump ship

Why does Epic get the privilege to force me to buy things through their store?

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#407

Post by vidarh »

mike_d wrote: post #373
lxgr wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regulators did get involved: https://twitter.com/ThierryBreton/status/1765793776692326891

He tweeted something. There was some reporting he might have sent a letter asking questions too, the same as you or I could do. If any official action was taken it would have to be documented with a case: https://digital-markets-act-cases.ec.europa.eu/search

It is incredibly naive to suggest that someone with that power "sending a letter asking questions" would be remotely similar to you or I doing the same.

The EU has an long tradition of "conversations" and "questions" with an unstated "give the right answer and you can avoid an unpleasant official action".

You're right there is no official casework. That is also entirely irrelevant to the issue of whether or not Apple caved under pressure.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#408

Post by agust »

LeafItAlone wrote: post #395
agust wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the EU immediately stepped in and explained them what the consequences of breaking the law would be, and Apple budged, caved, backed down. Not getting out of this one.

That only makes sense if we assume Apple’s world class legal team didn’t see what every lay person could. Rolling back the decision is not going to get them out of the eyes of the regulators and they must have assumed that going into it. Why give the EU even more ammo against you. My guess is that they saw that all happening but Epic provided them a letter saying they double pinky promised, cross their hearts, will o…

Or maybe Apple is not infallible, they took a shot because they are very arrogant and thought they could get away with it, and it failed miserably because now there is a law which makes their abusive behaviors illegal?

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#409

Post by kelnos »

tshaddox wrote: post #292
biscuitech wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you rather have no choice? I get the sentiment, but it's nice to finally have lawmakers and regulators standing for what's right - for once.

Aren’t regulators by definition establishing regulations which make all choices more similar to each other?

There are plenty of ways to differentiate in a competitive market. Good regulations set baselines for fair play, both toward customers and competitors. Whether or not that makes some aspects of those choices more similar isn't really relevant. Or if it is, it's because it makes them similar in good ways. Ways that are pro-customer and pro-competition, but they won't do unless legally required.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#410

Post by Aloisius »

agust wrote: post #348
nielsbot wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article > “Following conversations with Epic, they have committed to follow the rules, including our DMA policies. As a result, Epic Sweden AB has been permitted to re-sign the developer agreement and accepted into the Apple Developer Program.”

This is Apple's propaganda to try and save face. What happened is the EU stepped in and explained to them what the consequences of breaking the DMA would be. Apple backed down, like they did a week ago with PWAs.

> Apple backed down, like they did a week ago with PWAs.

Eh. Backing down would be Apple allowing non-WebKit browsers to run PWAs.

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