Earlier this year, Epic Games big title of Fortnite was removed from both the Apple app store and Google’s play store following a change by the developers to include a direct payment method for their in-game currency, V-Bucks. The decision was deemed against the terms of service for both marketplaces as it would forgo the additional tariff of 30% applied to all marketplace purchases, and the action taken to remove the game from both marketplaces launched a legal battle between the three, with the brunt coming between Apple and Epic with Google largely remaining quiet.
Whilst the legal battle is continuing, and likely will do for a long period of time, Apple had implemented one big change – for developers earning less than $1 million in total revenue, the tariff would be cut from 30% down to 15%. Many feel this is largely a symbolic change and does little to fix the root of the problem, with the CEO of Epic Games even releasing a statement saying that this didn’t fix the root of the problem, but as a whole how impactful is the change?
(Image from whatsthebest.co.uk)
An area that may change is within certain genres that have been underrepresented on the marketplaces due to the large tariff that has remained in place for so long – gambling and betting sites here have already faced trouble throughout the past few years with changes to initiatives such as Gamstop which had aimed at reducing participation options for problem players, but neither have ever largely been represented in the app marketplaces because of this tariff – the reduction could present an opportunity for similar genres to find a greater representation away from their own dedicated sites as it is no longer a large loss for each deposit made. Given the legal battle will be drawn out for a longer period of time, it is likely that further changes will be made and this 15% will drop further allowing more options for many developers, but that could still yet be quite some time away.
The curious factor during the current changes is at how quiet Google have been able to remain throughout – whilst the majority of the argument has been between Apple and Epic Games, Google is still a large part of the ongoing case but have yet to make similar adjustments – unlike Apple there is a little more freedom on the Android platform as the Play Store isn’t the only trusted marketplace, but it is still a sizeable portion of all of the downloads that take place on android devices. By itself, the change by Apple isn’t too impactful, but it may have larger reaching implications – if Google is to also go down a similar path and more changes can be made to lower the rate even further, it provides a growing number of opportunities on the marketplaces for smaller developers and further allows operators in other genres who have been unable to make the change, to finally join the mobile app movement.
