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Epic games CEO Tim Sweeney thinks ‘every politician should fear’ Apple’s power

41 points by retskrad 4y ago

newaccount2021 4y ago
Techies have golf-clapped as Apple has borged more and more of the tech landscape. By time folks realize Apple is going to end up being 80% of what is "Silicon Valley", it will be too late. The platform power of Apple's walled garden will destroy startup culture. Any great idea can vertically integrated directly into the platform, OR taxed 30% until the only real winner is Apple, OR nullified by kicking it off the app store without comment. Not even Google is safe. Search is something Apple could do "good enough" at this point...and all they really have to do is threaten Google with being booted as the preferred search engine and Sundar Pichai will bid more and more and more until he is paying Apple $25 bln a year for the privilege. Android will be relegated to Samsung making phones for poor people. Windows will die because other than gamers, no one under 30 uses it. Who is safe? Amazon. Apple doesn't want to be in the warehouse business. Also Tesla. Apple will never catch them. Everyone else will lose and suffer the Apple monopoly.
ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
Nah
throwaway5959 4y ago
subharmonicon 4y ago
New headline: “Billionaire doesn’t like to pay for infrastructure that helped make him a billionaire.” To his credit that’s a substantially large club, he’s not alone. (Edit) To elaborate, he’s balking at a company having control over a platform that they built and charge for to help maintain the platform. Every company wants to own and drive the platform, and that’s been the desire since at least the 80’s. Tim would like to build a metaverse and own that platform, and doesn’t like that today he’d have to build it on top of other platforms and pay a price to do so.
- musicale 4y ago
  This just in: CEOs named Tim like making money and want more of it.
- smolyeet 4y ago
  Can’t push an app with a 3rd party store as an option. Can’t install outside the AppStore. I think the argument for some regulation is fair. The mobile space is restrictive at the end of the day and users lose because of it.
  - subharmonicon 4y ago
    I think ultimately this argues for far more than regulating the mobile space. Users can end up losing anytime there are dominant players, but I don’t think Tim is arguing for anything to help users, he’s arguing to help himself and that’s my point. This isn’t some kind of altruistic mission he’s on.
    - jlawson 4y ago
      If you need people to be on an 'altruistic mission' to support them doing something, you're really narrowing your options. If someone does something that helps a situation we should support it.
      - Spivak 4y ago
        Epic CEO wants government regulation to make it so he doesn’t have to pay for something he values just doesn’t have the same ring.
        jlawson 4y ago
        Replace "Epic CEO" with "someone" in that sentence and you're talking about like half of all activism.
- mattbrewsbytes 4y ago
supertrope 4y ago
Instead of trying to hobble their competitors with more regulations Epic should get control of a platform. Valve Software feared the Windows platform would funnel most revenue through the Microsoft Store so they hedged with SteamOS. Google was concerned Apple's vertical integration would be a threat to search revenue so they bought Android to guarantee a friendly platform exists. Ubisoft withheld their IP from Steam for a few years to prop up their own platform.
- lbwtaylor 4y ago
  With the Apple and Android market power, this is not really realistic. Ubisoft could just create an app to avoid Steam. It's not possible to do that in the mobile space.
  - Spivak 4y ago
    With the Windows and Mac market this is not really realistic. And yet here Valve is with SteamOS and the Steam Deck. It doesn’t actually have to capture the market, it just has to exist as a threat. It’s worked for ages threatening to move to Linux to get steep discounts from MS.
    - lbwtaylor 4y ago
      Steam Deck is a premium handheld - with Sony no longer in that market there was actually almost no competition as the Switch doesn't really serve it. Steam failed to get any traction with SteamOS as a desktop systems before Steam Deck, so I think it reinforces my point.
musicale 4y ago
I am sure many game companies would like to pay lower platform fees to Apple than they pay to Google and Nintendo.
thedailymail 4y ago
Honestly curious: what is the basis for Epic's claims about "monopoly" when iOS and Android are such a clear duopoly? Wouldn't there have to be some coordination between the two in order to trigger antitrust?
- bsjaux628 4y ago
  Apple is a monopoly inside the IOS platform, they set the rules, block anyone that they don't want in it and then release their own version of the product using closed APIs. They are not a monopoly looking at the OS mobile market but they are inside their bubble which has grown big enough to be considered decrimental to the users and developers
polski-g 4y ago
He is right. Look at the visceral response against SOPA/PIPA when all Google had to do was change their google doodle for a day. The senators said they had never encountered such a deluge of phone calls that day. If Google/Apple doesn't want a law to pass, all they have to do is push a notification to every one of their users.

41 points by retskrad 4y ago

newaccount2021 4y ago

Techies have golf-clapped as Apple has borged more and more of the tech landscape. By time folks realize Apple is going to end up being 80% of what is "Silicon Valley", it will be too late. The platform power of Apple's walled garden will destroy startup culture. Any great idea can vertically integrated directly into the platform, OR taxed 30% until the only real winner is Apple, OR nullified by kicking it off the app store without comment. Not even Google is safe. Search is something Apple could do "good enough" at this point...and all they really have to do is threaten Google with being booted as the preferred search engine and Sundar Pichai will bid more and more and more until he is paying Apple $25 bln a year for the privilege. Android will be relegated to Samsung making phones for poor people. Windows will die because other than gamers, no one under 30 uses it. Who is safe? Amazon. Apple doesn't want to be in the warehouse business. Also Tesla. Apple will never catch them. Everyone else will lose and suffer the Apple monopoly.

ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago

Nah

throwaway5959 4y ago

subharmonicon 4y ago

New headline: “Billionaire doesn’t like to pay for infrastructure that helped make him a billionaire.” To his credit that’s a substantially large club, he’s not alone. (Edit) To elaborate, he’s balking at a company having control over a platform that they built and charge for to help maintain the platform. Every company wants to own and drive the platform, and that’s been the desire since at least the 80’s. Tim would like to build a metaverse and own that platform, and doesn’t like that today he’d have to build it on top of other platforms and pay a price to do so.

musicale 4y ago
This just in: CEOs named Tim like making money and want more of it.
smolyeet 4y ago
Can’t push an app with a 3rd party store as an option. Can’t install outside the AppStore. I think the argument for some regulation is fair. The mobile space is restrictive at the end of the day and users lose because of it.
- subharmonicon 4y ago
  I think ultimately this argues for far more than regulating the mobile space. Users can end up losing anytime there are dominant players, but I don’t think Tim is arguing for anything to help users, he’s arguing to help himself and that’s my point. This isn’t some kind of altruistic mission he’s on.
  - jlawson 4y ago
    If you need people to be on an 'altruistic mission' to support them doing something, you're really narrowing your options. If someone does something that helps a situation we should support it.
    - Spivak 4y ago
      Epic CEO wants government regulation to make it so he doesn’t have to pay for something he values just doesn’t have the same ring.
      - jlawson 4y ago
        Replace "Epic CEO" with "someone" in that sentence and you're talking about like half of all activism.
mattbrewsbytes 4y ago

supertrope 4y ago

Instead of trying to hobble their competitors with more regulations Epic should get control of a platform. Valve Software feared the Windows platform would funnel most revenue through the Microsoft Store so they hedged with SteamOS. Google was concerned Apple's vertical integration would be a threat to search revenue so they bought Android to guarantee a friendly platform exists. Ubisoft withheld their IP from Steam for a few years to prop up their own platform.

lbwtaylor 4y ago
With the Apple and Android market power, this is not really realistic. Ubisoft could just create an app to avoid Steam. It's not possible to do that in the mobile space.
- Spivak 4y ago
  With the Windows and Mac market this is not really realistic. And yet here Valve is with SteamOS and the Steam Deck. It doesn’t actually have to capture the market, it just has to exist as a threat. It’s worked for ages threatening to move to Linux to get steep discounts from MS.
  - lbwtaylor 4y ago
    Steam Deck is a premium handheld - with Sony no longer in that market there was actually almost no competition as the Switch doesn't really serve it. Steam failed to get any traction with SteamOS as a desktop systems before Steam Deck, so I think it reinforces my point.

musicale 4y ago

I am sure many game companies would like to pay lower platform fees to Apple than they pay to Google and Nintendo.

thedailymail 4y ago

Honestly curious: what is the basis for Epic's claims about "monopoly" when iOS and Android are such a clear duopoly? Wouldn't there have to be some coordination between the two in order to trigger antitrust?

bsjaux628 4y ago
Apple is a monopoly inside the IOS platform, they set the rules, block anyone that they don't want in it and then release their own version of the product using closed APIs. They are not a monopoly looking at the OS mobile market but they are inside their bubble which has grown big enough to be considered decrimental to the users and developers

polski-g 4y ago

He is right. Look at the visceral response against SOPA/PIPA when all Google had to do was change their google doodle for a day. The senators said they had never encountered such a deluge of phone calls that day. If Google/Apple doesn't want a law to pass, all they have to do is push a notification to every one of their users.