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From https://appfairness.org/issues/30-app-tax/ https://appfairness.org/issues/30-app-tax/ > For most purchases made within its App Store, Apple takes 30% of t

From https://appfairness.org/issues/30-app-tax/ https://appfairness.org/issues/30-app-tax/ > For most purchases made within its App Store, Apple takes 30% of the purchase price. No other transaction fee — in any industry — comes close. This is a straight-up lie and Epic, being in the gaming industry, knows it. Steam takes the same 30% (unless you're huge) and is Epic's direct competitor on PC. Not to mention every other gaming platform[1]. [1] https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/07/report-steams-30-cut-is-actually-the-industry-standard https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/07/report-steams-30-cut...

Dahoon 6y ago
It isn't a lie. Steam takes a cut too yes, but Apple takes a cut after that 30% you mention. You don't pay 30% to Steam from in-app purchases. No one except Apple force you to use its payment system and take an additional 30% cut after the first 30% cut of the app price. Unless you are a small indie developer you end up paying way more to Apple than any other platform.
- fhood 6y ago
  I don't think this is true. I don't own that many games on steam that offer in-app purchases, but monster hunter's redirect you to the steam storefront, and steam definitely takes their cut of those.
- tannedNerd 6y ago
  What? They still force you to list DLC in steam store listings and to use the steam system (aka 30%) unless you have a special contract with them like apple does with Amazon.
foota 6y ago
It might be that steam doesn't consider it a transaction fee? (Which is weasley wording imo)
- mthoms 6y ago
  I generally support the "fight" against the Apple tax but I'd have to agree that this is grossly misleading. Apple is doing much more than providing transaction services in exchange for their cut. Whether or not what they do is actually worth 30% is up for debate (IMHO), but it's dishonest to say that that their cut is merely a "transaction fee".
izacus 6y ago
> This is a straight-up lie and Epic, being in the gaming industry, knows it. Steam takes the same 30% (unless you're huge) and is Epic's direct competitor on PC. Not to mention every other gaming platform[1]. And Epic managed to fight this by offering a store that takes a lesser maragin. Something Epic or anyone else is ever allowed to do on Apple due to how they deliberately built the product. If anything, the Steam situation is the perfect example of how broken the mobile world is when it comes to enabling competition.
sdenton4 6y ago
I think the the underlying game here is that epic wants to run its own app stores. It's not allowed to do that because every platform has followed Apple's model and mandated that theirs is the one and only app store on each platform. Otherwise we end up with many app stores, which requires users to care about where they get candy crush... You can pay more or less at each store, and have different probabilities of picking up some terrible malware based on your decisions. On the flip side, we might see lots of apps using weird disallowed OS functionality in off-brand stores, leading to a second round of innovation in apps. Realistically, it ends with many stores of varying quality and mark up. People brainwashed enough to pay the apple tax will probably continue paying the apple tax, for the most part. But the overall game changes substantially.
harrisonjackson 6y ago
Can a developer offer in-app purchases in a Steam downloaded game w/ direct payments using stripe or another payment processor?

Dahoon 6y ago

It isn't a lie. Steam takes a cut too yes, but Apple takes a cut after that 30% you mention. You don't pay 30% to Steam from in-app purchases. No one except Apple force you to use its payment system and take an additional 30% cut after the first 30% cut of the app price. Unless you are a small indie developer you end up paying way more to Apple than any other platform.

fhood 6y ago
I don't think this is true. I don't own that many games on steam that offer in-app purchases, but monster hunter's redirect you to the steam storefront, and steam definitely takes their cut of those.
tannedNerd 6y ago
What? They still force you to list DLC in steam store listings and to use the steam system (aka 30%) unless you have a special contract with them like apple does with Amazon.

foota 6y ago

It might be that steam doesn't consider it a transaction fee? (Which is weasley wording imo)

mthoms 6y ago
I generally support the "fight" against the Apple tax but I'd have to agree that this is grossly misleading. Apple is doing much more than providing transaction services in exchange for their cut. Whether or not what they do is actually worth 30% is up for debate (IMHO), but it's dishonest to say that that their cut is merely a "transaction fee".

izacus 6y ago

> This is a straight-up lie and Epic, being in the gaming industry, knows it. Steam takes the same 30% (unless you're huge) and is Epic's direct competitor on PC. Not to mention every other gaming platform[1]. And Epic managed to fight this by offering a store that takes a lesser maragin. Something Epic or anyone else is ever allowed to do on Apple due to how they deliberately built the product. If anything, the Steam situation is the perfect example of how broken the mobile world is when it comes to enabling competition.

sdenton4 6y ago

I think the the underlying game here is that epic wants to run its own app stores. It's not allowed to do that because every platform has followed Apple's model and mandated that theirs is the one and only app store on each platform. Otherwise we end up with many app stores, which requires users to care about where they get candy crush... You can pay more or less at each store, and have different probabilities of picking up some terrible malware based on your decisions. On the flip side, we might see lots of apps using weird disallowed OS functionality in off-brand stores, leading to a second round of innovation in apps. Realistically, it ends with many stores of varying quality and mark up. People brainwashed enough to pay the apple tax will probably continue paying the apple tax, for the most part. But the overall game changes substantially.

harrisonjackson 6y ago

Can a developer offer in-app purchases in a Steam downloaded game w/ direct payments using stripe or another payment processor?