Is he really this fucking dumb, that is literally Apple's model too.
To be fair Apple generates a big chunk of money on hardware sales every year, consoles have much slimmer margins even if they are sold at a profit.
30% is still too much in any case, but the point remains that they need to profit on software sales more than Apple does, along with the fact that Apple has a much bigger market share in certain territories where it becomes troublesome if they get to dictate how mobile software and services are allowed to operate in ways that makes those unable to compete with Apples own offerings.
For entertainment on TV the consumer has a ton of choice between various platforms and there is no obvious gate keeper like what we have on mobile. Apple can tell developers to get bent on the Apple TV platform since the consumer has viable alternatives. It is a legitimate issue when companies like Apple and Google get to dictate how we are allowed to get and pay for content on mobile since those two companies make up for the vast majority of digital software sales on those type of platforms. Google itself doesn't offer Android for free out of generosity, the aim is always that the end user must give them something to turn a profit with in terms of data to push ads, services or software sales in a store they curate.
While I think Epic in principle is right to question the overreaching monetization aspects of the stores and how even Android makes it somewhat hard for average consumers to install third party software, I don't agree with this tactic and the end goal of it.
Epic wants to cut out both Apple and Google by not giving them any slice of the cake despite both companies being the reason Epic has any reason wanting to publish on in the first place, this is not okay and the goal in the end is just greed to the detriment of the users of those platforms. A compromise must be made since the current deal is not fair and can stifle innovation in the case of iOS, the take from the platform holder must be lowered and certain restrictions must be lifted both on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
It's a case where neither Epic or Apple/Google is in the right, the compromise must come from a third party like the EU commission that doesn't have an outright bias.
