“This is an inflection point, and the start of a long-running debate on how these platforms push us right to the edge of what we are willing to pay,” James...
As gaming grows in stature in the lives of Americans during the pandemic, it has highlighted the extraordinary grip that two of the four tech companies under investigation have over the white-hot industry.
“These closed gardens feel like extortion,” Currier told MarketWatch. “You need to pay to survive. It harkens to Microsoft MSFT, -0.72% and the Department of Justice investigation [in the 1990s], and AT&T T, +0.06% before that. With Apple and Google, it comes down to what is the ‘right’ take for the platforms? Thirty percent? 10%?”
“Ultimately the app developers are completely at the whim of the distribution store owners — it’s fairly often an app will be banned temporarily with no recourse,” said Adam Landis, chief executive of AdLibertas Inc., a small tech company that helps mobile developers make money from their apps. “The gaming industry, with all that’s happening around the world, and it’s really unfortunate, but it’s made gaming the largest entertainment medium in the world,” Nvidia Corp. NVDA, +4.46% CEO Jensen Huang said during an earnings call Wednesday. “The thing that people haven’t realized about videogames is that it’s not just a game itself anymore. You’re spending time with your friends. You’re using it to create, to realize your imaginations.
Apple CEO Tim Cook contends his company offers security, development support and the chance for small companies to reach 1 billion users for an annual $99 fee to participate in its developer program.An outcry among videogame makers underpins a larger sentiment among developers that Apple is exacting a steep, punitive price. On Thursday, a trade group representing the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and New York Times sent a letter to Cook seeking more favorable terms on Apple’s App Store.
Additionally, Epic’s lawsuit presses the issue on the business relationship between Apple and its developers, and on antitrust investigations, according to attorney Scott Wagner. “Antitrust law is generally far behind the times,” he said. “For those reasons, I believe there will be some resolution.”Proving Play Store rules violate antitrust laws may be more difficult than with the App Store, antitrust lawyer Paul Swanson said.
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