Don’t forget the paid apps pay for the free apps, too.
I would be interested to learn how much running the iOS store really costs.
To compare Epic to real world: They would love to put a stand in the Apple Retail store, sell their stuff and not give a penny to the store owner. I highly dislike it. Especially as they have no problem paying to Sony and Microsoft the same 30% margin on the consoles.
Really? So you do the tax returns for each country you sell to?
How much do other payment processors charge that do not offer a secure and convenient installation and update mechanism for your app?
Come to think of it - does Epic pay the correct tax in Greece, Australia, Chile, Egypt, San Salvador etc on the purchases that did not go via Apple? If not, doesn’t that make them guilty of tax evasion?
I have to say, I think it’s more complicated than what we get ‘fed’. It’s not clear to me if Epic Games knew that Amazon has been only paying 15% for IAP, while the rest of us suckers pay 30%.
How does $15 Billion dollars sound, will that cover the costs? Apple doesn’t disclose the actual profit they’ve made from the App Store, or the costs. Originally it was speculated that it makes most of the $50 Billion profit from services, but I don’t see how.
Epic has said that’s not what they want. Instead they want better rates (and even implied for all) or allowing for a competing store in the iOS world, just like Mac, Windows, Android…
Epic have stated the reason that they’re okay with this cost on games console, is because console makers, make a loss on hardware, whereas Apple makes 38% + profit on hardware sales (older devices that they continue to sell without updating have larger profit margins). Plus console makers also fund some game development. Can you imagine if Apple would help fund us indie developers?
They don’t but that’s why some of them are as low as 5%.
It’s also worth noting that when the Mac App Store started, Apple provided a means for new apps to be easily discovered, over time this functionality dissipated, and was replaced with what Apple wants you to see. That couple of days of being in the “new” board, really helped to launch an app on the Mac. But nowadays, new apps go straight to the backroom, and under that pile of festering cardboard over there.
Which is why I think that 30% is too much, because an important feature (for indie devs) has been taken away and nothing put in its place.
Edit: I am not saying what Epic Games did was right and I am not arguing their punishment, well not Epic Games anyway, Apple trying to punish Epic Int, was overreaching.
Epic is doing this because they are losing money hand over foot (dont know where that phrase came from) every day on their store. Epic as a company isnt losing money but they thought they could intice/force people from Steam over to them and found out that it costs more than they thought to run their own store.
Now they are looking for other revenue streams to help save the store.
a game company in the first year sold 500k units of their game in EPIC. and around 4-6 months (they company was vague) EPIC paid the game company was late. not days but weeks late. They ported the game over to STEAM and got the same numbers in less than 90 days (and by the calculations some data analysist did it was around 45-50 days). And STEAM never paid late. The game company almost closed shop multiple times that first year as they couldnt get their money from EPIC to just pay the bills.
If EPIC can get Apple/Google/Steam/etc not to charge 25-30% for doing all the hosting/selling/etc and get it so they can reduce their rate, then EPIC thinks they can attract more companies to their store.
I have been watching this train wreck of a store for a long time really trying to figure out what they are doing and why.
Do I like the 30%? nope. but the store (A/G/S/etc) is doing lots of heavy lifting like tax rates. import/export laws, hosting, etc. And that all costs money.
Some gamer friends of mine including an old game developer said this has been going on for a while and EPIC knew they couldn’t win but they also couldn’t force Apple to disclose other “agreements” with other companies (i.e. not everybody pays 30%) in order to do “good faith” negotiations. So they forced the issue and now they are forcing Apple to open some of their hidden practices. The same thing happened when Apple was forced to pull their pants down with their eBook deals. So I tend to put some faith on that, " if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck , then it probably is a duck" .
Rapidly, at a tremendous rate, as in He’s making money hand over fist . This expression is derived from the nautical hand over hand , describing how a sailor climbed a rope. [First half of 1800s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
I’ve never owned an apple device partly because they cost more but also because on my windows and Android devices I can install whatever I want that I get from wherever I choose.
Imagine going to an estate agent who had two houses to sell but doesn’t tell you that one is freehold and the other leasehold. He’d be breaking the law. But that’s what happens when you buy a phone. No one tells you that there are restrictions on your rights when you buy from apple. It’s a loophole that needs closing.
At one time, Apple had a sort of open ended view of Mac devs where they looked positively on you for supporting (especially exclusively) their platform. That changed after SJ came back. Back in the in the late 90s, I even heard someone from Apple just come out and say it. What used to be:
What have they done for us?
changed to
What have they done for us, today?
That is, there needs to be proof that something actually does benefit Apple and then, does it benefit Apple enough?
That was the guiding view when SJ came in and cleaned house, and it applied to all future business. Before that, Apple was much easier going about handing out even cash to third party developers to help them keep products coming (which is kind of unthinkable today).
As far as iOS apps go, that monster was created by those jumping on the platform and agreeing to Apple exclusivity (governed by the perspective I mentioned). As long as I can sell macOS apps without going through Apple, then it comes down to my ability to market. We do okay in the macApp Store but our direct sales of macOS products completely dwarfs that.