{"id":51964,"date":"2021-03-10T06:00:47","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=51964"},"modified":"2021-03-11T09:45:27","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T14:45:27","slug":"epic-vs-apple-and-also-valve-for-some-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=51964","title":{"rendered":"Epic vs. Apple, and also Valve for Some Reason"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might remember that last year Epic Games decided to pick a fight with Apple. Epic’s gripe was that Apple used their monopolistic power over the AppStore to make themselves an even BIGGER monopoly. The idea is that if you put an app \/ game on the App Store, then you MUST use their store for all financial transactions. Furthermore, by using their store you end up surrendering 30% of your income to them.<\/p>\n

Now, a few details on this are still a bit hazy to me. I heard many claims that Apple tries to extend their control to other platforms. So if you’re based on iOS, then they want 30% of ALL transactions, even ones on Android devices. On the other hand, I’ve heard other people say this claim is nonsense, and other people claim it’s true, except Apple makes exceptions for large partners. Maybe my search skills are inadequate, but I couldn’t find a definitive answer to this. All I could find were merry-go-round flame wars between randos in the comments. If you’ve got a definitive (or at least authoritative) answer to all this, please drop a link in the comments.<\/p>\n

It should go without saying, but I am not a lawyer. I do not give legal advice, and I’m not trying to. Also, this is not intended to be news or serious analysis. I’m not telling you the news, this is just me yelling at the television while the news is on.<\/p>\n

Anyway, before we explain how Valve Software comes into this, let’s talk about where this all started…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Epic Fires the First Shot<\/h3>\n

I found this during a random image search and I thought it was too perfectly stupid not to share. I can't even tell if it's critical of Epic, or mocking people who are critical of Epic. I can't tell if the horrible photoshopping is the result of ineptitude, of if that's part of the joke. I love it.<\/div>
I found this during a random image search and I thought it was too perfectly stupid not to share. I can't even tell if it's critical of Epic, or mocking people who are critical of Epic. I can't tell if the horrible photoshopping is the result of ineptitude, of if that's part of the joke. I love it.<\/div><\/p>\n

In an effort to break free of Apple’s 30% lamprey, Epic deliberately violated Apple’s TOS by inserting their own storefront into Fortnite on iOS.<\/p>\n

Predictably, Apple banned Fortnite for this. Epic then responded with a lawsuit they’d already queued up in anticipation for this move. (The same thing also happened between Epic and Google, but the Apple fight is the exciting part of the story and the fight with Google is mostly the same conflict but with less public interest. So let me acknowledge the stuff with Google and then shove it off to one side to keep this simple.)<\/p>\n

So the stage was set for our big Epic vs. Apple matchup. However, both sides made some dumb moves that got everything off on the wrong foot.<\/p>\n