News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire. Parent comment

Re:Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire by kelnos on Friday May 21, 2021 @07:40PM (#27241349)
Will it, though? My expectation is that most apps will still want to be on the main App Store if they can, since installing a third-party app store still represents friction to the install experience.

Perhaps in a more mature market where having several app stores on your phone is commonplace (assuming that even happens), we'll have an annoying situation of exclusives, but I don't expect that "instantly" or even remotely so.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire by shagie on Friday May 21, 2021 @08:44PM (#27241984)
I would point to Epic's use of exclusives.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/epic-covering-refund-costs-...

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/08/why-one-pc-developer-...

https://www.vg247.com/2019/07/09/epic-games-wants-pc-games-m...

Given epic's current behavior on PC, I think it would be a given that they would also do this on another App Store.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire by kosievdmerwe on Saturday May 22, 2021 @12:45AM (#27243581)
How else should Epic compete? They can't reduce the price in line with their 12% cut vs steam's 30%, because steam doesn't allow games to have cheaper prices elsewhere.

Which now that I think of it seems anticompetitive from Valve.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire by zepto on Saturday May 22, 2021 @10:52AM (#27247072)
Exactly this - exclusives are a standard move which we can be guaranteed will be used if multiple apps stores are allowed on iOS.

It won’t help consumers or developers, but it will allow epic and other well funded companies to insert themselves into a revenue stream without creating value.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire by zepto on Friday May 21, 2021 @08:02PM (#27241582)
Yes, it will happen instantly.

Well funded app stores will just pay up front for exclusives. It’s completely standard practice in any comparable industry. Music, TV, Movies, books, podcasts, etc.

Developers might abstractly prefer to be on the main store, but some will be happy to take million dollar payouts from the marketing budgets of the new stores.

It’s hard enough for independents to be successful now, but once you have competing publishers like Epic in the game, the era of independent commercial app development will be over.

[ Parent | on HN ]