![]() ![]() (Image credit: Epic Games)Īcross the document, Apple more or less says: Epic, your store is a bonfire that you chuck money into, all the gamers are mad at you, and if we'd let you run wild, you would've caused security breaches on our phones. Apple doesn't want the court to think that the App Store and Epic Games Store are comparable, saying that in-app purchases are part of the iOS platform, not just some store feature, and that the first iPhone didn't even allow third-party apps (read: you should be thanking us!). ![]() That's true in Ubisoft games on the Epic Games Store, for instance, which have their own in-game transaction system. "Literally zero, while we're being endlessly bombarded with claims of problems that Epic isn't answering."ĭuring the trial, it may also come up that Epic doesn't force developers to use its payment processing for in-game purchases on its store. It also says that Epic's customer support team is inferior to Apple's, citing an internal email sent by Sweeney in which he asks "what happened with the community team" that was supposed to offer customer service to people complaining online. In a mostly-redacted section, Apple calls out "significant security breaches involving EGS," possibly referring to a 2019 Fortnite breach. "By its own admission, the Epic Games Store-two years after it launched-is still missing 'critical' features," writes Apple's lawyers (echoing large parts of Reddit). ![]() It wants to put the Epic Games Store on iPhones and sell mobile games with its own payment system, competing with the App Store itself, and hopes US courts will rule that it would be anti-competitive for Apple to stop it.Įpic argues that iOS developers can't innovate and provide the safety features they want to due to Apple's overbearing policies, and Apple brings up the Epic Games Store's unprofitability in part to attack the idea that Epic actually does those things in the first place. Epic wants to accept money from Fortnite iOS players with its own payment processor, bypassing Apple's fee (which it famously did without permission to kick off this whole fight), while Apple would like to continue getting 30 percent of Fortnite's iOS revenue, thank you very much.Įpic called its plan to go after Apple and Google "Project Liberty."Įpic has even bigger plans than bypassing Apple's fee in Fortnite, though. Epic says that's unfair, arguing that Apple and Google have all the power when it comes to smartphones, so developers are forced to pay their fees if they want to make successful mobile apps. Apple makes developers get approval to sell iOS applications on its App Store, and also enforces use of its payment processing system for in-app purchases, which gives Apple a 30 percent revenue cut. Other fun things Epic and Apple have to say about each otherĪll of this shin-kicking between Epic and Apple is over the way transactions are handled on iPhones and iPads. "EGS is not yet profitable at its current scale and stage of development because it has front-loaded its marketing and user acquisition costs to gain market share," reads Epic's filing, citing CEO Tim Sweeney. And what Apple calls 'losing money,' Epic would probably call 'investing money.' This spending is all part of the plan, says Epic, and its 12 percent revenue cut will eventually be enough to sustain the store, something it has been saying since it launched the store at the end of 2018. ![]() In its new filing ( PDF here), Epic puts a happier face on its business plan, saying that it expects the Epic Games Store to start earning annual profits in 2023. Apple points out that Epic doesn't think that'll happen until 2027. Added up, that's an estimated $600 million that the Epic Games Store will need to recoup before it'll be profitable on the whole. Here are some of the big timed Epic Store exclusives (or semi-exclusives, "not on Steam" being the important part) that are coming soon:Ĭiting depositions from Epic Games Store VP and GM Steve Allison and Epic VP of business development Joe Kreiner, Apple says that Epic lost $181 million on the Epic Games Store in 2019, projected a loss of $273 million last year, and projects another loss of $139 million this year. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |