Apple has said that it would take its case against Epic Games to Supreme Court. In 2021, U.S. District Attorney Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple should allow game developers to include links and buttons to other payment processors in their apps.
However, Apple said that goes against their business model and may make it difficult for them to protect iPhone users from “fraud, scams, malware, spyware, and objectionable content”. Consequently, Apple wants the Supreme Court to stop the 2021 verdict by Rogers.
Epic Games is also ready to head to the Supreme Court to challenge parts of the 2021 verdict that favored Apple. According to a court filing, Epic Games said “Apple imposes a huge commission on every sale the developers make to Apple’s 1 billion captive customers”.
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On further research, we discovered that Apple charges game developers a 30% commission on all sales made through their platform. Also, game developers are not allowed to use a different payment processor. In other words, they are stuck with Apple as the only means of receiving payment for their games—regardless of how bitter they are about the 30% commission.
Based on these findings, we asked our readers what they thought about platforms charging game developers 30% to use their platforms. Well, the answer we got was far beyond what we imagined.
Readers share their opinion on platforms charging game developers a 30% commission
In our poll, we called on our readers to vote on whether a 30% commission was fair or too high for platforms to charge game developers. However, we didn’t just ask them to vote, we also asked them to tell us why they voted for or against the 30% commission.
“If you vote in favor of the 30% commission, feel free to explain why you think it’s fair. If you vote against the 30% commission, please state what percentage you consider fair,” we wrote.
Like most polls, the result was mixed. However, 81% of the participants said the 30% commission charged game developers was too high while the remaining 19% said it was fair. It got more interesting when we looked at the comments left by some of the poll participants.
Those in support of the 30% commission that platforms charge game developers defended their choice by highlighting how difficult it was to build and maintain a platform. Those against the 30% commission mostly highlighted how platforms are no longer doing enough to promote developers’ games on their platforms.
Why do some game developers think a 30% commission is too high?
Nathian Myers, a game and app developer, believes that the 30% margin is too high because the developers will need to pay a further 20% on taxes. According to Myers, at the end of the day, the developer is left with a 2% or 3% margin if they are lucky.
Wolfgang, a senior project manager at Gauselmann Group, acknowledged the importance of the value provided by all the available platforms. Some of these values according to Wolfgang include “marketing reach, centralized update support, multiplayer features,” and so on. Nevertheless, he believes that “30% is too greedy. [That a] 12-15% would still be sufficient to allow the platform providers a healthy profit”.
Ekrem Atamer, a lead community manager at Funcom, gave a more critical analysis. According to Atamer, even if platforms lowered the commission they charge game developers, the impact may not be felt by gamers but by developers “which is good and paves up [the] way for more people and more innovation”.
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Atamer went ahead to give an interesting analogy. “I always ask people to imagine a world where MS charged 30% for any purchases done on a PC. How restrictive would that have been? How many programs we use today would have never existed?”
Daniele Alessandra, a technical team leader and Full Stack developer thinks the entire concept of App Stores was a selfish “model that only benefits big companies” and that it killed innovations like Flash and Shockwave that “allowed anyone to create their own games and distribute them as they wished”.
Although Layla Draki believes the 30% commission levied on game developers is not worth the service, she countered the idea that Flash and Shockwave were better alternatives. “Flash and Shockwave were ‘evil’ and Macromedia changed quite a bit for the dev platform. Then you had to provide your own infrastructure. You can still build out more modern tools like flash/shockwave like SPAs or WASM apps.”
Those in support of the 30% commission was fair had a strong argument
Wolfgang Hamann, the president, CEO and founder at Koolhause Games Inc., thinks those complaining that 30% commission is too high don’t understand the concept of “market correction and business innovation to come up with a better option at less”.
“It’s funny how so many like to tell others how much their percentage or fees should be.” Hamann wrote. “We live in a market-driven economy and video games, just like most entertainment forms are a hit-driven business. If you feel 30% is too high, then start your own App Store and see if you can make it work at less.”
Galen Tucker, founder and CEO at Ingenuity Media Inc., highlighted 3 reasons why he thought the 30% commission platforms charge game developers is well worth it. “Thirty percent is nothing compared to the percentages taken in the old box sold at retail model,” Tucker said. “Not to mention you had to get a distributor to carry your game OR negotiate with retailers to carry it yourself.”
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“The main reason a game development shop feels slighted is the perception of losing money if they had sold it themselves directly. If the company is large enough like Epic and Valve, then maybe. But realistically, even Epic needs the App Stores to reach many players in the market,” Tucker wrote.
Marcos Borregales, a senior technical artist at Niantic, Inc., thinks the platforms do a lot more than just hosting the games which justifies the 30% they charge game developers. “These platforms assume most of the IT risk. Keeping the customer’s sensitive information, handling transactions, dealing with content delivery, and making sure that licenses are up to date (if your game is using their authentication APIs),” Borregales wrote.
This view was also supported by Joshua Herbert, an audio engineer. “Thirty percent is fair considering these platforms handle payments, page hosting, marketing, sales + analytics, security, and distribution,” Herbert wrote.
Conclusion
The legal battle between Epic Games and Apple will likely be a long one. A win for Epic Games will force Apple to readjust its marketing model. However, the ripple effect will be huge including providing inspiration to other game developers to question the commission they are charged on other platforms.
Listening to the argument from both sides of the divide, it is clear that the problem is not about the percentage the platform charge. Rather, it’s whether the game developers feel they are getting value for that amount—which can be subjective.
Feel free to lend your voice to the topic by sharing your views on the 30% commission platforms charge game developers in the comment box below.
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