“Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, feels that Fortnite is large enough and scaled enough and that Apple needs Fortnite more than Fortnite needs Apple… and Google too for that matter,” says Alex Kruglov, CEO of pop.in. “Tim very intentionally wanted to get kicked out of the store. There is no other way to explain what they did so that they can make this very public and so they can have a lawsuit.”
Alex Kruglov, CEO and co-Founder at pop.in, says that Apple and Google should reduce the 30 percent tax they charge developers for existing in their respective ecosystems:
Apple and Google Must Reduce The Tax On Developers
I definitely like the idea of challenging both the Apple store and the Google store in getting them to reduce the tax that they charge all of the developers. There are two potential issues here. Issue number one is that the tax is decided by Apple and Google and can be changed at any time. There is nothing that developers can do because there is no other place we can go to. There is no other way to get on the devices and a person usually has only one device.
Secondly, kind of similar to TicketMaster in the 90s, when Pearl Jam went against them, they control the entire ecosystem. This includes the ability to advertise within your store to get your app downloaded. I love Apple’s clean well-lit ecosystem. I love what they’ve built. But if there is a bigger player who has leverage who can help the rest of us run more successful and profitable businesses I am all for it.
Apple Needs Fortnite More Than Fortnite Needs Apple
Tim Sweeney (CEO of Epic Games) is doing this very deliberatively. There is no question about it. If you follow Tim on Twitter or just in general, you know that he has been on this campaign for quite some time, since before they started their own ecosystem. Epic has its own store and they let developers opt-in to their fee system where they charge 12 percent.
He feels that Fortnite is large enough and scaled enough and that Apple needs Fortnite more than Fortnite needs Apple… and Google too for that matter. Tim very intentionally wanted to get kicked out of the store. There is no other way to explain what they did so that they can make this very public and so they can have a lawsuit.
Apple Under Pressure To Reduce App Store Fees
Apple has been perceived as the good guy. Then on the other side with Google where with Facebook they are monopolistic given that they control essentially the entirety of the advertising system. So where do I think this ends up given the scrutiny that Apple is facing? I think that there is a very good chance that they will come back and reduce the fees and also opt-in to something firm as opposed to the set of rules that are all over the place.
This is a pretty inexpensive way for both Apple and Google to say they are listening (to developers). We’ve heard the developers and we are going to do the right thing. I’m predicting this but this is definitely not what they have done over the last decade.