And this is EXACTLY why people are fighting against google and apple exclusively controlling the stores on the respective platforms.

Edit: yes, i know you can add a 3rd party "store" to android, but it doesnt have the same rights as the google store, and its certainly not a user friendly process.

You just tried to call out people complaining about the cut they take right now with the logic that leads to piss poor service (terrible take but let's roll with it)

Right now OP is getting piss poor service.

So how does A relate to B in the context of this post? You think there's worse than the current 0 percent warning and support they got, or...

Would devs do a more standard Sony/Playstation type agreement?

Something like maybe $10K per year base, and then extra to get an app certified etc? Similar cut in the end?

There are models that allow for better service- problem is they tend to be expensive for smaller devs

I hate when people make comments that assume no one will call them out on obvious BS.

I was part of Nintendo's dev program in the Wii days, grand cost was 0 dollars a year. NOA lent us dev kits worth thousands of dollars and we had direct forum access to software developers working for Nintendo.

Sony and Microsoft will do similar.

You're talking about arrangements where Sony is acting at least in-part as a publisher, not indie titles going up on their shop as is comparable.

I don't complain about the fee, I just don't want to hear about the app store at all and distribute my software freely without unwanted middleware which don't add value.

For me as a user it adds a lot of value.

If there's really some value added, you have nothing to worry about, it should survive by itself.

So they need to take a huge cut to provide awful service regardless? Huh?

For many (most) small developers, they are not taking a "huge" amount of money.

One developer at apple is around 300K, or around $600K with overhead.

Many of these smaller apps pay maybe $100 + a tiny bit of sales which are small. You call this "huge" money. This is not. Apple will provide global distribution / accessibility etc for almost nothing (they also will give you xcode etc etc as part of your $100). Devs want gold plate expert service but don't want to pay for it.

Have you been involved in any tech to tech co deals? The amounts apple is taking here are tiny - to apple they are zero for small devs.

Almost sounds like they’re providing a utility, and should be regulated