The thing is, Apple probably isn't the only one to do this. Apple is actually very graceful by the standards of platforms. Note that Epic did not attempt to sur

The thing is, Apple probably isn't the only one to do this. Apple is actually very graceful by the standards of platforms. Note that Epic did not attempt to surreptitiously introduce a "direct payment" feature into Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo platforms. That's because you don't even get developer documentation without signing an NDA. Had Epic even thought about doing this on console, the question wouldn't be "will the console manufacturers retaliate", as much as it would be "how many months until the console manufacturers start banning new game submissions that use Unreal Engine"? Apple did this before, BTW. Remember "Thoughts on Flash"? That wasn't Jobs railing against an aging browser plugin. Adobe had figured out how to get Flash to export iOS apps, and that really pissed off Jobs. So it was really Jobs attacking a strawman (the buggy Flash Player) in order to justify banning all third-party development tools. The FTC threatened to sue and the rule was removed about 3 months later.