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Comment by vonwoodson | Hacker News Reader

But, can we just say: fck Fortnite. This is the wolf calling for homes to be built of straw. We hate “free to play”/“pay to win” and in-app purchases. We HATE* them. Thank god that Apple is taking a stand. I haven’t been so happy with a company since they refused to unlock that dude’s phone in California a few years back. (Which, I know, the lawsuit ended the same day an iOS “security” patch came out.) Seriously. If you can’t make money by playing by the rules, GTFO.

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> We hate “free to play”/“pay to win” and in-app purchases.

While I'm not a Fortnite player, I thought Fortnite was known for not being pay-to-win, with IAP being for cosmetic options, not in-game advantages; basically selling digital collectibles you can show off while playing.

I think there is a pretty big ethical differentiation between that and F2P games that have you pay for in-game advantages (with the Wargaming.net model where you pay for in-game options that are mostly not competitive advantages but broaden the scope of play choices [because most of the competitive advantage is compensated in matchmaking] somewhere in between.)

Not all F2P + IAP models are the same.

>Thank god that Apple is taking a stand.

What exactly is Apple doing to combat the scourge of “free to play”/“pay to win” and in-app purchases? From where I'm sitting, they seem perfectly fine with it (as long as they get their cut).

Completely disagree. Although I don't play Fortnite, their monetization model is fine. There is no pay to win (don't conflate that with free to play), the only things you can pay for are the battle pass and cosmetic skins. Apex and many other games use this model and it's ultimately good for the consumer in my experience.

Apple just complied with an FBI subpoena this past month:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24495707

Horrible take. Doesn't matter what you think of fortnite(it's not pay to win) Epic succeeding in making their own app store would be incredible for developers and consumers. You seem to be blinded by some sort of misguided rage.

How is Fortnite "pay to win"?

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