“The app store is not a service. The app store is doing a disservice to developers,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said in his latest interview with The Financial Times. In his never-ending battle against Apple’s (and Google’s) so-called monopoly of the App Store, the Fortnite owner is fighting Cupertino politics and calling Facebook an ally in the metaverse.
Last year, after Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that the App Store and its rules did not violate antitrust laws in Epic v. Apple, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney was found guilty of knowing more than a district judge because he said she was “mistaken”. her ruling.
Since then, Sweeney has dealt with Apple’s App Store policy, especially when the company fails to maintain the store as a safe place for users due to widely available fraudulent apps.
In an extensive interview with The Financial Times, he talks about his vision for the Metaverse with Fortnite, Apple’s App Store policy, and the Meta’s vision for the Metaverse, calling it an ally, though he could sue the company over a monopoly in the future.
Apple App Store is a disservice, says Epic CEO
Yesterday, Apple released two independent studies showing that the iOS app economy currently supports more than 2.2 million US jobs and a 118 percent increase in US small developer revenue over the past two years, which Epic CEO calls a disservice to developers.
“The app store is not a service. The app store is doing a disservice to developers. The app store is forcing developers to treat their software below par in order to provide customers with a low-quality experience in order to charge uncompetitive handling and processing fees to inflate the prices of digital goods. This is a strange scheme that should never have been created … it should have been canceled as soon as the industry began to reach scale.
Tim Sweeney says that while Apple is entitled to profit from hardware — “as a business, they’ve fairly won in one market: hardware” — it can’t do the same with software. He again calls the 30% cut a monopoly, as PayPal charges 3% and Visa and Mastercard charge 2%.
“The problem here is a classic monopoly draw. You start with equipment. Apple makes smartphones and they make a profit from their smartphones – and they deserve it. But then they force all buyers of their smartphones to use their app store exclusively for digital content. They prevent all other app stores from competing with them on equipment owned by billions of end users. This is the first draw, and it completely thwarts the competition and market forces that could shape better app stores and better consumer offerings. And another link is that Apple is forcing all apps in its app store to use its payment processing service for digital goods.”
“Existing monopolies will use their power to become next generation monopolies,” says Epic CEO.
Tim Sweeney is “terribly afraid” that “current monopolies will use their power to become the next monopolies on next generation platforms.” But for some reason, while Apple and Google seem bad, Epic’s CEO says there are two sides to Meta.
In terms of the metaverse, the Meta has “formulated a really interesting vision” and it’s not “building the Meta’s walled garden, they’re trying to contribute to the standards and practices that lead to an open metaverse”.
On the other hand, Sweeney says that Meta controls the advertising economy and that the revenue share from creators is very small. But since it doesn’t involve Epic’s business, Sweeney never called the company a monopoly, stating:
Currently, Meta does not have a monopoly or even a significant user base in any of the core areas in which Epic competes or intends to compete. . . The meta doesn’t do anything to choke us. You will have to think about the future. But overall, I’m incredibly happy and impressed with the amount of investment the company is making into the development of the future hardware platform.
Sight
The Epic CEO’s vision shows why the District Judge dropped his App Store monopoly charges as Sweeney isn’t trying to stop Apple or Google rather than allowing companies to cut his profits from Fortnite and its metaverse of the future.
In the FT interview, you can see that the companies are Epic’s allies as long as they don’t get in the way of its market leadership. As a company, there’s nothing wrong with being a leader in your segment or aiming for maximum profits, but after these past years of the Epic v. Apple antitrust case, it seems like the Epic CEO is yelling at the cloud every time others don’t play for what what he thinks is fair.
The full interview is worth reading; just click here.
Reading now
The post Epic CEO calls the App Store a disservice to developers, and Facebook its metaverse ally appeared first on Gamingsym.