In the 15 years since it launched the App Store, Apple has proved again and again that it cares very little about games, even as it’s happy to make billions from them, Neil Long, who was an App Store games editor for seven years, writes in The Guardian.
It all started so well. When the iPhone and iPad arrived, those devices transformed games almost as much as they upended the rest of the tech world. Suddenly everyone had powerful games machines in their pockets, and it was amazing…
So what did Apple do next? Nothing really. It seemed to create a whole new games ecosystem by accident, and ever since has presided over it like a contemptuous landlord. It takes a tasty 30% cut of almost every in-app purchase while doing next to nothing to earn that fee…
Apple could have reinvested a greater fraction of the billions it has earned from mobile games to make the App Store a good place to find fun, interesting games to fit your tastes. But it hasn’t, and today the App Store is a confusing mess, recently made even worse recently with the addition of ad slots in search, on the front page and even on the product pages themselves…
Happily things may be about to change – including that 30% commission on all in-app purchases. After a bruising US court battle between Apple and Epic Games over alleged monopolistic practices, government bodies in the UK, EU, US, Japan and elsewhere are examining Apple and Google’s “effective duopoly” over what we see, do and play on our phones.
MacDailyNews Take: Could the App Store be better? Yes.
Does Apple really not care about games? No.
Games dominate the front page of the App Store. The first tab of the App Store after “Today” is “Games.” Apple has its own Apple Arcade stocked with exclusive games.
Long’s hit piece reeks of resentment and ulterior motives.
It’s Apple’s App Store. Of course they have a right to charge commissions.
Apple’s App Store isn’t a charity and it’s not free to operate.
How much did it cost developers to have their apps burned onto CDs, boxed, shipped, displayed on store shelves prior to Apple remaking the world for the better for umpteenth time? Apple incurs costs to store, review, organize, surface, and distribute apps to over one billion users. — MacDailyNews, June 10, 2022
The bottom line is clear: Epic Games wants to enjoy all of the benefits of Apple’s App Store, including access to well over one billion of the world’s most affluent users for free. That is illogical, unfair, and, basically, theft. – MacDailyNews, May 4, 2021
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“It takes a tasty 30% cut of almost every in-app purchase while doing next to nothing to earn that fee…”
MDN – “How much did it cost developers to have their apps burned onto CDs, boxed, shipped, displayed on store shelves prior to Apple remaking the world for the better for umpteenth time?”
MDN take is right on except they left off a few details. I was in the gaming business for over 10 year. What MDN didn’t included was the bribes paid to rack jobbers, publishers, magazine companies, and all the bullshit just to get in front of a publisher or get on a shelf or a decent review. I saw first hand our owner hand over $50K in cash to a rack jobber, because he said his daughter needed braces. Then he said, if we don’t sell 250K units in the first two week, we would go into the bargain bin.
Freak’n babies who cry because they only get 70%. Hell, we made 3-6% back when I made games. These babies need to STFU already.
And what about those publishers that choose to sell through other sellers, or even have their own storefronts? It’s not Apple’s business how they run their business. They don’t own the App, or the customer’s device.
Valid point. However, then they have options. There are other gaming platforms, computers, or other OS’s for their game. They can even sell to iOS users who have jail broke their phones. Those publishers don’t have to make only for iOS devices.
I see a few holes in your argument. What if want a Whopper but I’m at McDonalds? Do you think someone, be it the government or anyone else, make McDonald’s make me a Whopper exactly how BK does it? Does McD’s own their customers just because they are loyal customers?
If I want Whopper though, my car doesn’t force me to drive to McDonald’s exclusively…
But you just made my point. Apple does require you to make apps exclusively for their OS. That’s a business decision the game developer makes, correct? There are other platforms and OS’s.
Which they have no right to do. They sell the gizmo, the “car”. They have no basis either from the App or through device ownership to prevent be from driving it to Burger King.
But no worries… solution is coming, and there should be punitive damages on top.
Good. Stay focused on what counts …. transgenderism.
He’s 100% right. Apple has a proven history of not giving a shit about games and a handful of repurposed mobile shovelware won’t change that