I’m stuck somewhere in the middle in all this stuff. Apple invested untold and godly amounts of money to develop the iPhone and the App Store, so it feels like they should be able to set the rules and commission they earn as they see fit. Epic wouldn’t have the option to make their billions on the App Store if Apple didn’t have the successful product they do, so Epic should just pay the commission or tax or whatever they want to call it. Every other storefront, aside from Epic’s massive failure, charges 30%. It’s not an egregious amount, it’s industry standard.
Epic is always welcome to start their own mobile phone business and then charge, or not charge, whatever they see fit. They obviously won’t do that because it’s not as simple as flipping on a light switch. It’s extremely difficult to do so.
On the flip side, smaller developers should be charged less than the 30% (I believe in recent years Apple made this change, charging a smaller fee on the first $1m, but I could be wrong). Many very small, one or two person dev teams, could use that break to make an actual living on the App Store, which leads to better apps in the future.
I’m stuck somewhere in the middle in all this stuff. Apple invested untold and godly amounts of money to develop the iPhone and the App Store, so it feels like they should be able to set the rules and commission they earn as they see fit. Epic wouldn’t have the option to make their billions on the App Store if Apple didn’t have the successful product they do, so Epic should just pay the commission or tax or whatever they want to call it. Every other storefront, aside from Epic’s massive failure, charges 30%. It’s not an egregious amount, it’s industry standard.
Epic is always welcome to start their own mobile phone business and then charge, or not charge, whatever they see fit. They obviously won’t do that because it’s not as simple as flipping on a light switch. It’s extremely difficult to do so.
On the flip side, smaller developers should be charged less than the 30% (I believe in recent years Apple made this change, charging a smaller fee on the first $1m, but I could be wrong). Many very small, one or two person dev teams, could use that break to make an actual living on the App Store, which leads to better apps in the future.