Fuck the stupid morons who defend Apple.
Imagine if Microsoft banned Windows users from installing the software they want on their computer.
Imagine if Microsoft required all software developers to give them 30% of their earning or Microsoft will ban them from Windows
For a company like Apple, that’s “cost of doing business” rather than a genuine deterrent.
I didn’t read the article, but I presume this is under the DMA which has provisions for increasing fines for repeat offenses - something like 10% of global revenue or something like that. I’m also a bit discouraged by how small the number is, but there is still some hope that it will either increase or get them to change their practices. But it is quite frustrating how slowly it’s going.
In fact, chances are that Apple is going breaking the law until the last minute so they can squeeze every penny they can out of this scheme until they can’t do it any longer.
People are down voting you like your defending them, but you’re not, and you’re right. It sounds like a lot of money, but for Apple, it’s just an adjustment to the profits they made doing this.
500m is bigger than you think. Also fines escalate.
Microsoft does do this on ARM versions and lower end versions.
The EU seems to be the only entity left with a backbone when it comes protecting consumers.
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It goes up if they dont comply. This is first offence since the law came into effect.
O no half a billion dollars.
There’s no way one of the biggest and most profitable companies in human history won’t be able to financially recover from this horrific fine.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/10/apple-reports-fourth-quarter-results/
O wait they made 95 BILLION in just the last quarter of 2024?
Nevermind.
Well, half a billion is still a lot of money so it’s great that the union got it so they can spend it on something useful. Half a billion USD is the entire yearly revenue of some fairly large companies in Sweden.
And the fine is not intended to bankrupt Apple, it’s intended to punish them and as a show of force. If Apple still refuses to comply or even pay the fine, the fines would obviously escalate and the max fine on this offence is very very high.
Also remember that the EU generally only cares what they do inside the EU, they care about how it affects EU citizens. So it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to issue brutally high fines based on yearly global revenue yet.
Imagine if Microsoft banned Windows users from installing the software they want on their computer.
Imagine if Microsoft required all software developers to give them 30% of their earning or Microsoft will ban them from Windows
I think that’s exactly what Microsoft is aiming to do in the future.
cough S Mode cough Windows RT cough
Naw, you’re right. There are still ways to get a decent windows experience, but it will fall to the domain of power users.
I personally see MS not really caring about their windows users. With more than enough revenue from enterprise to keep them going for decades, they will lose grip on gamers and older casual users, who remember windows before the marketplace and preinstalled adware.
With all the flavors of Linux (and a proper walled garden like Apple), I’m thinking Windows will follow Skype in the next decade or so.
So it’s going to get bought out by Microsoft and replaced with a shitty electron app?
Only being used because someone is paying you to do it, then snuffed out after an extended death throe.
Getting out of S mode is a few clicks away though. There’s a certain kind of user who actually benefits from it, and nobody is locked in.
RT’s restrictions were primarily architecture based (ARM)
Hating on Apple for their 30% cut is popular.
Hating on Google for their 30% cut is popular.
Hating on Microfot, Sony, and Nintendo for their cuts is popular.
But somehow hating on Steam for their 30% cut is going too far.
Steam reduced their cut to 20% for the biggest publishers, let’s see any of the others do that. They also allow other stores on the steam deck. They also allow steam keys and shouldn’t demand MFN pricing.
Their cut is worth it to users for the same reasons as an iOS and Android user might say, except when it comes to switching platforms, your steam games can come with you to rival platforms and not just friendly ones.
Epic charges 12%, but they’re somehow the villain.
Perhaps that’s because Steam doesn’t seem to be trying very hard to “lock in” developers to their platform. Devs are free to sell their PC games on Gog or Epic or whatever. Steam is popular because it’s a good platform. This freedom for developers or customers mostly does not exist on mobile or on consoles, except for the EUs efforts here.
Even their “console” the Steam Deck can, relatively easily, run games from other stores. I’m not saying a 30% cut should be considered fair but they do seem to take a different approach to digital sales than the other large players.
Yeah it’s arguable that Steam is a monopoly but somehow billion dollar publishers can’t create a store to sell their own products without fucking it up with annoying bullshit. Pay the 30% to protect you from yourselves.
When you’re in a monopolistic position you don’t need to do much for people to decide to sell in your store instead of going for alternatives, who would have thought?
You could say the same about Google.
The same Google that’s been constantly trying to add features that deter 3rd party app stores?
Such as?
Google Play protect
Google SafetyNet. You have rooted your device and/or are using a custom ROM? Then your device definitely isn’t secure and a lot of apps straight up prevent you from using them.
Steam is equally shitty, they just have the advantage of not being publicly traded which means they can create long term strategies and execute them successfully.
Doesn’t mean they’re pro consumer.
Would not say equally shitty, otherwise they won’t have popular support they do.
You are correct however that they are not pro consumer.
They are just a smarter, wiser business with a sustainable business model that understands the importance of consumer trust.
You can find popular support for plenty of shitty things. I could point 70m people in the US supporting a very shitty thing!
But those are Americans.
And you think stupidity is exclusive to the US? Italy elected a fascist, Germany’s far right party is gaining ground…
Popular support for something doesn’t mean that thing is good.
Germany and Italy learn from their mistakes. The US keeps repeating them more than any other country (except for Argentina)
I’d like to see a game developer chiming in but as a user, 30% cut by Steam feels justified.
They have helped me discover and buy many games that I wouldn’t have even heard of otherwise. Compare that to Google Play Store which is full of dogshit shovelware and Pay2Win games.
And sometimes I’ve even bought Steam keys via Fanatical bundles, where I chose which games to buy by looking at their Steam store pages. Steam got nothing from these transactions as far as I know.
This is without getting into other useful stuff like guides and forums hosted by Steam which I can look at whenever I get stuck. Or Steam workshop which allows users to easily mod the games.
Call me a fanboy but I’m tired of this ‘what about Steam’ comments.
Ask Sony, Microsoft, Google, and Nintendo to improve their stores instead.
Fair, but there is an argument to be made about how hosting things are now cheaper than ever, by a huge margin. When 1GB used to cost 1 dollar, they had 30% cut. Now when that’s 0.01 not 1, 100x the difference (while games have gotten like what, 10x bigger?), it’s still 30%.
But you know what is the most damning argument against their cut? Steam earns more money per employee than next 3 companies combined and Gabe is buying fleet of yachts and multiple submarines, not even getting into real estate, while indie devs are going broke one after another. That cut might make a major difference for devs, but at this point Gabe has already too much money and won’t suffer from having less of it, which is really not consumer or developer friendly thing to do, basically hoarding riches like other billionaires
I mentioned few other things beside hosting though. The discovery algorithm, for example.
Steam is not the only means of distribution anywhere, and you can often buy the same game both from Steam and directly.
It’s too early to hate it.
(Well, I mean, I want a FreeBSD native Steam client with native Proton and all infrastructure, but I can understand that it’s a small percentage, even if not that different from Linux support.)
You get value from Steam for paying that.
What value do you get from Apple for paying the Apple tax? A higher price for a phone that could cost 500€ less?
As a Linux gamer, valve making proton has launched gaming on linux into the stratosphere.
What exactly is the value that steam provides with its 30% cut that Apple doesn’t provide? Not defending Apple by the way.
Openness of the hardware is a valid point but that isn’t exactly a feature of steam (nor a distinction between the other platforms in OPs comment)
Apple forces me to stay there.
Valve offers me to stay there. The whole market and review system is incredibly important as I can see if it’s even worth it to buy. Where else can you see reviews besides comparing numerous comments under video reviews?
You get value from Steam for paying that
Are you crazy? You know how much money that is? And this isn’t taken from the distributors cut we get higher 30% prices because of it.
Do you have any example for this? Because in my experience, games on Steam cost literally the same amount as everywhere else and sometimes are even a bit cheaper than that.
That’s part of the problem. If they charged the same to developers as Epic, I wouldn’t be so critical.
For games primarily sold through Steam, Steam is often the most expensive part of the game. Is it okay that Steam’s take is higher than that of all the actual developers combined?
Have you ever played a game that was actually worth playing and thought that the fucking storefront and game launcher were worth 30% of the game?
Have you played a bunch of half-baked PC ports that could’ve used a bit more money on finishing the game?
Developers decide to launch as-is partpy because they know Steam will be taking a massive cut and there will be no ROI for fixing the game.
The difference is availability of choice. On apple phones, Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation you are locked into a single source of software. On a PC there are myriad of game stores you can choose from. Sometimes you can even buy the software directly from the developer. Usually people are upset when this choice is taken away (for example epic exclusive games). Nobody would bat an eye if a developer offered their game on epic or their own platform with a ~20% discount compared to steam. But it is up to the developers to make their game available on any of the PC game stores.
In conclusion, steam is not a platform holder, they could charge whatever they wanted. If the markup was too high, you could simply choose to buy your games elsewhere. For most people, this 30% is worth it for the features and buyer protection that steam offers compared to other platforms.
Microsoft, Apple, Exxon, Meta, Amazon, JP Morgan or Saudi Aramco are the most powerful corporations in the world. They are empires more powerful than many nations. Their CEOs always travel with armed men. They have the personal phone number of Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
It’s healthy to scrutinize them. Steam is a problem, but Valve is nowhere near as powerful.
I agree that the 30% cut is too much. The only reason I give them a pass is because Steam is really good (at least, as a user). But I still want them to lower it.
For a dev those 30% are very much worth it because Steam has tons of customers and very good recommendation algorithms, you gain more in additional sales than what you lose from the cut. Could they do with less probably but they’re not extorting devs. There’s a reason why Epic had to do stuff like guarantee sales and provide huge advances to get anyone onto their excuse for a platform.
I get why people like steam. But as a steam hater, if GabeN ever dies and the kids or whoever is heirs are decide to sell to VCs or private equity. That 30% will be just as oppressive as anyone else’s.
“Eat the rich!”
“Including Gabe?”
“Woooow there cowboy!”
I hate the hypocrisy.
Gaben is a hardcore libertarian as well. And owns a billion dollar armada of yachts.
No he’s one of the good ones /s
Valve’s response to George Floyd was to give each employee a certain amount of money and let them choose which charity to give it to (if they did give it to charity), which means they could just as well give it to an anti BLM movement if they wanted to.
I hate it 🙂
Steam’s 30% is the last of their problems, I would like them to finally start actually moderating Steam forums. Because devs of the particular game usually don’t care. Visit some forums of newly released popular game and it’s full of bigots, misogyny, trolls and hate. It’s unbelievable.
Go check oblivion remastered
Bigots, Misogyny, Trolls & Hate is translation for I want people censored because I am on a power-trip. These are vague & nebulous & why don’t you & your buddies go counter them
& Good one mate, because I have been there.
Oh shit, one of those losers is here.
except only loosing 568m is just “the price of doing business” for them and it’s not much of a deterrent to make them stop. they made more than that by doing this so it’s still a net profit
While true, 568m is a significant cost of doing business. Also remember that a punitive action should not make the company go bankrupt, it should make them rethink.
And if they don’t, the fines will go higher, until they do rethink.
If they keep not complying, which is my understanding of what apple has been doing, they should absolutely be bankrupted. Or something drastic.
A warning, which will make other companies self-Police, bringing down the cost of enforcement.
Countries are so permissive of corporate bad behaviour it’s not even funny.
Perhaps I worded it poorly, but my point was that companies shouldn’t go bankrupt when they make a mistake.
If you keep doing it after you’ve been told, then you’re no longer just making a mistake it’s obviously malicious, but I don’t think then Apple should go bankrupt when they incorrectly implement a new law.
While I personally don’t think it’s accidental, you should be more lenient towards a first offense for any new law (unless you can prove it was intentional, which is incredibly hard).
I mean that would imply they stood to gain $568M by not allowing 3rd party app stores. Seems unlikely.
one of the most profitable companies in the world, it seems very likely
How much money do you think Google loses to 3rd party app stores? Considering they’ve been allowed from the beginning and are also one of the most profitable companies in the world?
Companies don’t do shit that costs them money for no reason.
There are only two reasons a for profit company would do something, for profit or because the law is making them.
Well I think it’s fair to assume that they not only didn’t know for certain that they would be charged/fined but also how long it would take for that to happen or how much it would be. And they rolled the dice. They’re definitely greedy but they’re not omnipotent.
Likely. I guess I should clear up what I’m trying to get at, companies that large and monopolistic spend immense amount of resources doing everything they can to stifle competition because it’s profitable to do so. They made the move knowingly approaching if not downright crossing the line, because their analysis showed them it would turn out to be profitable. Will we be fined? Probably not. If we do, can we afford it and still turn a profit?
Sorry, I don’t understand how that’s supposed to answer my question?
I missed. Meant to be aimed at your first comment up there
Right. And the fines will continue, lol.
maybe, maybe not
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20% for repeat offenders.
Historically EU fines are bad at stopping companies from trying shit, but they are good at stopping the behaviour. The money, btw, doesn’t go towards the EU’s budget it goes towards the member states’ contributions, everyone gets a rebate.
Yes, Windows does that. It’s called S Mode.
Thanks, I almost forgot about my experience using S mode. It is fucking awful.
If it was my own I would have just installed Linux.
Isnt the mode dead? I thought they discontinued it
S mode in win10
SE mode in win11
Imagine if Microsoft required all software developers to give them 30% of their earning
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/publish/publish-your-app/why-distribute-through-store
Flexible revenue sharing options that let developers choose their own commerce platform and keep 100% of the revenue for non-gaming apps, or use Microsoft’s commerce platform and pay a competitive fee of 15% for apps and 12% for games.
I guess their rates are lower. Currently.
EDIT: And as @Eggyhead@lemmings.world points out, that’s for Windows, not the XBox. For the XBox, they do run an exclusive store and apparently do 30% there as well.
continues using Linux
You somehow missed the original argument. No one is forced to use the app store, which is what this is generally about.
Big difference here is that Windows doesn’t REQUIRE developers to use the windows store or still pay them money if they use other methods of payment. Anyone can download an installer and install software without the Windows store and Microsoft doesn’t make developers pay them still to do that.
Now if they could get away with it they absolutely would like on Xbox. That’s why Valve put so much effort into Linux.
$568m is a day Apple will never get back!
They better start fining in Billions
Microsoft does with their Xbox, though. Don’t they?
Microsoft is actually the least problematic of the console racket (Sony, Nintendo and MS), games release simultaneously to pc and they offer cross compatibility. Maybe the EU will address it eventually, but i guess mobile takes precedent given that everyone has a cell phone.
“reeeeeee”
Tim Apple to Trump
You know what to do, papito…
