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Roblox gets away with this due to the framing that it’s a single platform with many different experiences: “To start, Roblox is not a single game. It's a platf

Roblox gets away with this due to the framing that it’s a single platform with many different experiences: “To start, Roblox is not a single game. It's a platform that hosts millions of user-generated experiences, such as historical roleplaying games or virtual labs to simulate physics experiments. Because of the diversity of content you'll find on Roblox, we use the term experience to refer to what you play on Roblox.” https://create.roblox.com/docs/education/resources/frequently-asked-questions-education https://create.roblox.com/docs/education/resources/frequentl... From the epic trial, Apple addressed why it allows them in a pretty tortured manner: https://www.polygon.com/22440737/roblox-metaverse-game-experiences-apple-epic-trial https://www.polygon.com/22440737/roblox-metaverse-game-exper... I think the best argument is that you’re a single player across games, kids speak of “playing Roblox”, there are portals between worlds, etc. This comment makes the point that all games feel the same: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41287780 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41287780 It’s pretty different from what Epic wanted to do by offering completely separate games in their App Store without paying apple commission.

modeless 2y ago
How were they getting away with it for the 10 years before that when they were still calling them games and were still clearly in violation? It's pretty clear that the name change is just a retconned excuse and has nothing at all to do with the real reason.
- ProfessorLayton 2y ago
  Well, they actually did get banned from the App Store at one point, but successfully appealed. Here's a key part of this: Executives also have kids and they want to play Roblox on the go!
  - modeless 2y ago
    Yes, favoritism by Apple execs is the most plausible explanation to me. I wonder if Phil Schiller owns any RBLX shares...
    - ProfessorLayton 2y ago
      All this happened when Roblox was private, I don't believe there was/is any monetary interest beyond whatever executives had from their employers. If it's anything like the story for getting Roblox on game consoles, then it really is executives caring about what their kids also care about, and that gives RBLX a huge leg up.
      - modeless 2y ago
        You may be right, but Apple execs are accredited investors worth tens to hundreds of millions and as such are easily able to invest in private companies, so that doesn't rule it out. Nepotism is another possible explanation if there are any connections there. And while it wouldn't be illegal while they were private, it would still be immoral, and it would become illegal when not disclosed as a risk at IPO. It could also further jeopardize Apple's standing with regulators, since they profess to apply their rules fairly and equally without secret deals (which is transparently ridiculous but Tim Cook said it in congressional testimony so it would be perjury if proven wrong).
johnnyanmac 2y ago
>Even Apple acknowledged this when a marketing head, Trystan Kosmynka, expressed “surprise” that Roblox was approved for the App Store in 2017 in an email. Kosmynka then defended this decision during the trial by saying Apple did not consider Roblox to be a place where people go to play games. >“I look at the experiences that are in Roblox similar to the experiences that are in Minecraft,” Kosmynka said. “These are maps. These are worlds. And they have boundaries in terms of what they’re capable of.” Wow. The damage control was even worse than I thought. So I guess the new UE Fortnite Network would be approved no problem since "it's not a game, it's a UGC platform" (not that Epic cares about app stores anymore). Because Epic isn't making the games anymore. Just offloading the labor to others a LA VR Chat.

modeless 2y ago

How were they getting away with it for the 10 years before that when they were still calling them games and were still clearly in violation? It's pretty clear that the name change is just a retconned excuse and has nothing at all to do with the real reason.

ProfessorLayton 2y ago
Well, they actually did get banned from the App Store at one point, but successfully appealed. Here's a key part of this: Executives also have kids and they want to play Roblox on the go!
- modeless 2y ago
  Yes, favoritism by Apple execs is the most plausible explanation to me. I wonder if Phil Schiller owns any RBLX shares...
  - ProfessorLayton 2y ago
    All this happened when Roblox was private, I don't believe there was/is any monetary interest beyond whatever executives had from their employers. If it's anything like the story for getting Roblox on game consoles, then it really is executives caring about what their kids also care about, and that gives RBLX a huge leg up.
    - modeless 2y ago
      You may be right, but Apple execs are accredited investors worth tens to hundreds of millions and as such are easily able to invest in private companies, so that doesn't rule it out. Nepotism is another possible explanation if there are any connections there. And while it wouldn't be illegal while they were private, it would still be immoral, and it would become illegal when not disclosed as a risk at IPO. It could also further jeopardize Apple's standing with regulators, since they profess to apply their rules fairly and equally without secret deals (which is transparently ridiculous but Tim Cook said it in congressional testimony so it would be perjury if proven wrong).

johnnyanmac 2y ago

>Even Apple acknowledged this when a marketing head, Trystan Kosmynka, expressed “surprise” that Roblox was approved for the App Store in 2017 in an email. Kosmynka then defended this decision during the trial by saying Apple did not consider Roblox to be a place where people go to play games. >“I look at the experiences that are in Roblox similar to the experiences that are in Minecraft,” Kosmynka said. “These are maps. These are worlds. And they have boundaries in terms of what they’re capable of.” Wow. The damage control was even worse than I thought. So I guess the new UE Fortnite Network would be approved no problem since "it's not a game, it's a UGC platform" (not that Epic cares about app stores anymore). Because Epic isn't making the games anymore. Just offloading the labor to others a LA VR Chat.