It's hard for me to root for either Apple/Google or Epic, but if Epic's action is the beginning of the end of exclusive stores, then go, Epic, go!
That's ironic given that the Epic Store is quite well known for buying exclusive rights to new game launches.
A game developer selling an exclusive to Epic is much different. They're not gatekeeping the platform which is the PC and no one is being forced to use the Epic store for distribution to get their games on the PC.
So to get access to 100% of the market on mobile platforms, you MUST deal with Apple AND Google. To get access to 100% of the market for anything on the PC platform you MAY deal with Epic, Steam, all of the above, or self-distribution. The difference is that developers get to choose which distribution strategy and platform makes the most sense for them in terms of cost, support, target audience, etc..
It's like if Walmart and Target were the only stores in North America and most buyers only shopped at one or the other. Would "choosing" not to sell your product at Walmart be a real option at that point?
There are so many ways to distribute PC games and software, you cannot even begin to enumerate half of them.
Mostly the same on Android too. With a simple toggle, you can then install other App Stores like Amazon's, etc. Many phones come with alternative App Stores pre-installed too.
Now, there may be some interesting changes for the players and I here I am genuinely unsure, which one is least bad .
I am watching this fight unfold and see no one I am willing to back here. But.. the resulting fight may end up having good results for the customer.
Time will tell.
This is why we can't have nice things.
It's entirely possible to lose money on consoles. Microsoft wrote off such a huge loss on the first XBOX, between $5bn and $7bn, that counting inflation on the losses they probably still haven't made a profit off it.
The other problem with that is it would make it flat out impossible for any other company ever to enter the console market. The up front cost is device losses would be staggering. It was bad enough for Microsoft as it is.
Not at all. I'm merely pointing on that their console business is composed of many streams and focusing on one part of it to the exclusion of others is deceiving. Supposedly, Return of the Jedi has never made money yet they kept making Star Wars movies.
> it would make it flat out impossible for any other company ever to enter the console market
I disagree. It's harder to compete with competitors that are selling their product below the cost of production. I've always wondered if an EU-based company came out with a console, what would happen? I think Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo would be forced to sell their consoles at or above cost in the EU or face dumping charges.
It seems to me that if the consoles cost 1/3 more they would sell fewer of them (Lots of empirical evidence for this), and therefore sell fewer games and make less revenue on services to their smaller customer base, who now can by games from other publishers without the console vendor making a penny. After all isn’t the point of this to cut off their other revenue streams at the knees? I may well be missing something though.