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To help convince you that Apple is a kind of monopoly, I found this article to be illuminating: https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/09/apple-goes-to-war-with-the-gam

by ece 6y ago

To help convince you that Apple is a kind of monopoly, I found this article to be illuminating: https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/09/apple-goes-to-war-with-the-gaming-industry/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/09/apple-goes-to-war-with-the... If you want to get a game on iOS today, you have to go through the app store+IAP or Apple Arcade or make a browser-based game. That comes down to: pay the Apple cut/tax or make a browser based game. This is the opposite of what Steam/GOG/Itch do: buy it once, play on 3+ platforms. Not allowing emulators/flash/alternative browser engines a few years ago might have been overlooked, but not allowing MS xCloud, GF now, Stadia, FB gaming while pushing Apple Arcade and individual app store game submissions definitely seems like an anti-competitive move to me. This combined with offering pre-installed apps that compete with Spotify/news/video app store apps (at a higher price) and trying to force apps to add subscriptions through iOS like Hey and Wordpress, Apple has shown it's willing and able to exploit the monopoly they have on iOS users. A platform-agnostic free market is more important than the iOS+Metal+AppStore monopoly Apple offers it's users IMO, if you must have a "guaranteed" walled garden, build one for yourself using privacy/security/parental controls. Every other user should be able to run the apps that they want and expect, and developers should be able to negotiate fairer terms.

013a 6y ago
The statistic I've found which illuminates this point to even people who know nothing about the situation: By revenue, Apple is the third largest gaming company on the planet, without making a single game. Most people think about that for a second, then say "oh wow." Google is the only other company like Apple in the top twenty largest gaming companies, and at least they're trying to make some games and improve the ecosystem via Stadia. But Apple: they take 30%. For games like Fortnite, that represents hundreds of millions of dollars; have they actually provided hundreds of millions of dollars in value back?

by ece 6y ago

013a 6y ago

The statistic I've found which illuminates this point to even people who know nothing about the situation: By revenue, Apple is the third largest gaming company on the planet, without making a single game. Most people think about that for a second, then say "oh wow." Google is the only other company like Apple in the top twenty largest gaming companies, and at least they're trying to make some games and improve the ecosystem via Stadia. But Apple: they take 30%. For games like Fortnite, that represents hundreds of millions of dollars; have they actually provided hundreds of millions of dollars in value back?