Apple says game streaming services violate App Store policies

Re:Apple says game streaming services violate App Store poli... by hboon on Saturday August 08, 2020 @12:28AM (#24088962)

I don’t think they had to do anything illegal. One of the things they could have done much earlier can be felt in the App Store nowadays. Notice the lack of emphasis on charts now. It’s not perfect now, but developer laments that getting featured doesn’t drive sales like it did before (because chatting didn’t have the kind of up front visibility and that features don’t last for an entire week anymore). That’s a good thing.

There is always downward pressure on prices because well-funded startups can provide their product free. But charts and the emphasis on them were very very unhealthy. I don’t think Apple can ever fix it now.

This is a serious problem for the entire consumer and prosumer industry. While competition that drives prices down is often good, but past a certain limit and it can do long term harm to the industry that is irreversible. I fear we might have already crossed that threshold.

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Re:Apple says game streaming services violate App Store poli... by zepto on Saturday August 08, 2020 @01:57PM (#24093682)

I agree that charts are a problem - arguably Google is just a set of charts for keywords, and i think that’s one of the reasons it is so corrosive.

I just don’t think that Apple could have done much about it at the beginning. If they weren’t producing charts, someone else would have been because people want to know what other people think is good, and on a global scale this results in winner takes all dynamics.

I agree with you about everything in this comment except the sentiment that it’s Apple’s fault or that they could have done something about it from the start.

My view is that we actually now do have a chance to do something about it, but anti-trust action against Apple will almost certainly destroy that chance and leave us stuck with this situation for much longer.

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