<story><title>Apple countersues Epic, seeks punitive damages</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-countersues-fortnite-maker-epic-games-seeking-to-halt-in-app-payments-11599592017</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jrockway</author><text>Apple writes in their court filing: “Epic sought to enjoy all of the benefits of Apple’s iOS platform and related services while its ‘hotfix’ lined Epic’s pockets at Apple’s expense.”&lt;p&gt;It seems that Apple has forgotten that each iPhone user already paid Apple hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars for the iPhone itself.  It is reasonable to charge developers for development tools, but if that&amp;#x27;s what you want to do, just charge them for development tools.  Meanwhile, I bought an iPhone so that I can run the software that I like.  If it costs money to develop a platform, it doesn&amp;#x27;t seem that strange to just charge that upfront when someone buys an iPhone.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Traster</author><text>&amp;gt; It is reasonable to charge developers for development tools, but if that&amp;#x27;s what you want to do, just charge them for development tools.&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;#x27;t how the software development eco-system works. There are &lt;i&gt;tonnes&lt;/i&gt; of examples of providing free development tools with restrictions on use and revenue sharing agreements. For example, there&amp;#x27;s this little known company called Epic Games which provides the Unreal Engine for free- but with the following clause:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; This license is free to use and incurs 5% royalties when you monetize your game or other interactive off-the-shelf product and your lifetime gross revenues from that product exceed $1,000,000 USD.&lt;p&gt;And Epic doesn&amp;#x27;t even provide quality control, a discovery mechanism, or payment processing.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple countersues Epic, seeks punitive damages</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-countersues-fortnite-maker-epic-games-seeking-to-halt-in-app-payments-11599592017</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jrockway</author><text>Apple writes in their court filing: “Epic sought to enjoy all of the benefits of Apple’s iOS platform and related services while its ‘hotfix’ lined Epic’s pockets at Apple’s expense.”&lt;p&gt;It seems that Apple has forgotten that each iPhone user already paid Apple hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars for the iPhone itself.  It is reasonable to charge developers for development tools, but if that&amp;#x27;s what you want to do, just charge them for development tools.  Meanwhile, I bought an iPhone so that I can run the software that I like.  If it costs money to develop a platform, it doesn&amp;#x27;t seem that strange to just charge that upfront when someone buys an iPhone.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>balls187</author><text>&amp;gt; If it costs money to develop a platform, it doesn&amp;#x27;t seem that strange to just charge that upfront when someone buys an iPhone.&lt;p&gt;Epic runs their own digital distribution platform, in which they also take a cut of the sales. Their terms are different than Apples, but they still do take a cut of sales.&lt;p&gt;Epic also takes 5% royalties for any (non-free) game built with Epic&amp;#x27;s Unreal Engine.&lt;p&gt;Epic and Apple have the same business model, however Epic&amp;#x27;s terms are not as high as Apples.&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, Epic makes a lot of money selling &amp;quot;cosmetics&amp;quot; and loot boxes. In effect, you have a company that has profited immensely from gambling, going after a company that has profited immensely due to their own closed ecosystem.&lt;p&gt;(also not to mention Epic blatantly ripped off the success of PUBG when they switched Fortnite to be a Battle Royale game)</text></comment>