Probably because the Epic Store takes a 12% cut. That they mention the Steam store is very telling - Epic and Steam have been in a spat over this. I highly doubt its a coincidence that their number matches Epic's exactly.

Maybe he tossed out a number he feels comfortable paying in taxes. I worked a bunch of overtime last year as a favor and ended up getting bumped into the ~30% tax bracket for income. I’m feeling pretty ragey about it myself.

Tax systems are progressive ... being in a higher bracket is nothing to be angry about.

That's arguable. You could say, not everybody loves is delighted that the value(to themselves) of their work goes down, the more they do it. I think most people accept some form of taxation but annoyance at idea of diminishing returns is very understandable.

Wait until you hear about how we Swedes feel when we hit the 50%-55% income tax bracket (not counting payroll tax of 30%!).

Also just to be clear, you’re only taxed 30% on the income in the new bracket, not your entire income so rejoice! :)

Yes, this. This is what irks me, what makes 30 a lot, and not 12, or why isn't 30 low, what's special about each number.

> How do you know if Apple will be able to sustain an app store with that number?

I suspect part of the problem is that Apple could be creative with its finances and make sure that just about any cut that isn't 30% means they can't sustain an app store. Apple earns an insane amount of money, they could get by with 0% commission just fine, but it's not in their interests to ever admit that.

Sure, 12% is made up, but the result of just about any negotiation is a made up number that sits somewhere between what one party wants and what the other party demands. It's just the nature of it.

Except you aren’t proposing that 12% be the result of a negotiation, you are suggesting it’s a fair number to be imposed by force of law.

I'm not suggesting anything, I'm not the OP. But to my mind they were suggesting that it is the kind of number that could come out of a negotiation and seem appropriate.