4 ms·

I don't think Tim Sweeney got into this fight to get a sweetheart deal. He has strongly held beliefs about platform rentiering and developer and app consumer ri

by ak217 6y ago

I don't think Tim Sweeney got into this fight to get a sweetheart deal. He has strongly held beliefs about platform rentiering and developer and app consumer rights. Epic could have negotiated a deal with Apple in private, instead they chose to maximize the publicity.

criddell 6y ago
If Sweeney's beliefs are that strongly held then I expect Epic to pressure their partner Sony (Sony invested $250 million in Epic last month) to allow alternate apps stores on the PS5.
- simonh 6y ago
  $250m buys a lot of moral fibre these days.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  I mean, if you want to pay full price for your console, sure. The console market only works if you sell the hardware under cost and then charge up the ass for services to the game developers ($50,000 was the price point for pushing updates on PS4)
  - m4rtink 6y ago
    IIRC modern consoles are at cost - do you have any linkable claims otherwise ?
    - WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
      My data could be out of date -> https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2006/11/8239/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2006/11/8239/ PS3 didn't regain profitability until the end.
      - m4rtink 6y ago
        Looks like Switch is sold at cost (also mentions couple previous consoles from Nintendo were the same): https://www.technobuffalo.com/nintendo-switch-sold-at-profit https://www.technobuffalo.com/nintendo-switch-sold-at-profit PS4 as well: https://www.quora.com/How-will-Sony-make-money-off-the-PS5-but-take-a-100-loss-on-every-console-sold https://www.quora.com/How-will-Sony-make-money-off-the-PS5-b... Only Xbox seems to be sold at loss at the moment: https://www.thurrott.com/games/xbox/xbox-one/118357/microsoft-wont-make-profit-selling-xbox-one-x https://www.thurrott.com/games/xbox/xbox-one/118357/microsof...
  - criddell 6y ago
    Lets pretend that consoles are loss leaders (I don't believe they are). The current system is structured to be as profitable as possible for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo and to keep competitors out. These companies aren't good guys looking out for me and you, they are looking out for the interests of their shareholders. If the $50k price for updates is true, that's awful. It sets up a lot of bad incentives for developers. Consumers deserve much better than that.
- SyneRyder 6y ago
  Epic already fought Sony previously over the ability to have cross-platform interaction, and ultimately Epic won. They're not afraid to fight Sony and they used Fortnite in that battle to change PlayStation store rules too: https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/26/17905770/fortnite-cross-play-ps4-nintendo-switch-xbox https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/26/17905770/fortnite-cross-pl...
jdminhbg 6y ago
> He has strongly held beliefs about platform rentiering and developer and app consumer rights. I am excited for third-party Fortnite skin stores.

by ak217 6y ago

criddell 6y ago

If Sweeney's beliefs are that strongly held then I expect Epic to pressure their partner Sony (Sony invested $250 million in Epic last month) to allow alternate apps stores on the PS5.

simonh 6y ago
$250m buys a lot of moral fibre these days.
WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
I mean, if you want to pay full price for your console, sure. The console market only works if you sell the hardware under cost and then charge up the ass for services to the game developers ($50,000 was the price point for pushing updates on PS4)
- m4rtink 6y ago
  IIRC modern consoles are at cost - do you have any linkable claims otherwise ?
  - WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
    My data could be out of date -> https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2006/11/8239/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2006/11/8239/ PS3 didn't regain profitability until the end.
    - m4rtink 6y ago
      Looks like Switch is sold at cost (also mentions couple previous consoles from Nintendo were the same): https://www.technobuffalo.com/nintendo-switch-sold-at-profit https://www.technobuffalo.com/nintendo-switch-sold-at-profit PS4 as well: https://www.quora.com/How-will-Sony-make-money-off-the-PS5-but-take-a-100-loss-on-every-console-sold https://www.quora.com/How-will-Sony-make-money-off-the-PS5-b... Only Xbox seems to be sold at loss at the moment: https://www.thurrott.com/games/xbox/xbox-one/118357/microsoft-wont-make-profit-selling-xbox-one-x https://www.thurrott.com/games/xbox/xbox-one/118357/microsof...
- criddell 6y ago
  Lets pretend that consoles are loss leaders (I don't believe they are). The current system is structured to be as profitable as possible for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo and to keep competitors out. These companies aren't good guys looking out for me and you, they are looking out for the interests of their shareholders. If the $50k price for updates is true, that's awful. It sets up a lot of bad incentives for developers. Consumers deserve much better than that.
SyneRyder 6y ago
Epic already fought Sony previously over the ability to have cross-platform interaction, and ultimately Epic won. They're not afraid to fight Sony and they used Fortnite in that battle to change PlayStation store rules too: https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/26/17905770/fortnite-cross-play-ps4-nintendo-switch-xbox https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/26/17905770/fortnite-cross-pl...

jdminhbg 6y ago

> He has strongly held beliefs about platform rentiering and developer and app consumer rights. I am excited for third-party Fortnite skin stores.