I’m so happy this other large company which wants to embed itself as a storefront and soak up fees won against the other large company which was already doing it.
Like, genuinely I am, but Epic isn’t doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. Epic/Sweeney is mostly sad they didn’t have the monopoly first.
Now Epic can finally install their own payment system, bypassing Apple’s parental controls, and little Timmy can just enter the details from mommy’s credit card when Epic gets him addicted to gambling loot boxes.
ask any game dev if they're happy Epic won this battle? If they say no then they've never tried to release a game on a marketplace. This is a huge win for developers.
But UE already supports Linux export and when Epic bought EAC the first thing they did was give it Linux support so they have already done what you asked
The size of the cut is what they use for the appeal to the public to build their social narrative, but legally/economically speaking it's not really the problem. The problem is that Apple effectively forbids developers from having any other mechanism to transact with customers except through their marketplace where they take the 30% cut, hence the lawsuit being about monopolistic practices, not the amount they're charging.
Valve handles things completely differently. Sure, listing on the Steam store requires giving Valve a 30% cut of the purchase price, but Steam doesn't demand a 30% cut of any and all transactions that happen within or related to the game like Apple does. You also don't have to buy a game from the Steam store to load it and launch it from the Steam client. And Proton works with a lot more games and applications than just those on the Steam store.
The fact that the two companies charge a similar price for a single relatively similar business case oversimplifies a lot of how the two companies operate.
Yes, Steam takes a cut as well. But the crux of the argument is the monopoly part. You can distribute your game outside of steam - on other app stores, or sell it directly to customers if you want. On iOS, there is literally no other distribution channel. You have to pay Apple and use their thing. That’s the difference.
"... Long national nightmare...". I think this guy likes his hyperbole. Trump, DOGE, and the rest of the current government? National nightmare. Russia attempting to invade Ukraine? National nightmare. Israel killing thousands of children in a bid to wipe out an entire populace? NATIONAL NIGHTMARE. This guy needs to visit reality more often.