Say you had the choice between:
1. Buy game X from Apple's app store for $39.00.
2. Buy game X from X's own app store for $30.00.
Would you install X's app store then? Would you at least want the option of choosing that path?
1. Buy game X from Apple's app store for $39.00.
2. Buy game X from X's own app store for $30.00.
Would you install X's app store then? Would you at least want the option of choosing that path?
Why? Epic Store is literally giving games and discount vouchers away so you'd get _on_ they're platform. You somehow imply that there wouldn't be competition between competing services?
For people like (excuse my bluntness) us hacker news types sure. I can make a case that for a large chunk of the population this is not true - consoles are popular because people don't want to have to deal with the added complexity that came from "freedom".
If Epic wins, any user who wanted a walled garden (e.g. iOS) rather than open (e.g. Android) will be deprived of that choice. Ultimately, having looked into this quite a bit, I think this boils down to a debate whether the walled garden business model should be legal.
The real solution there is forcing digital sales to include a perpetual license to the software independent of the platform. The current digital monopoly culture is against the overwhelming majority of citizens.
It will be install Epic store if you want Epic games.
Install uPlay if you want Ubisoft games.
And so on. Oh, and none of those will provide information about tracking and privacy breaches, because that's part of the business model.