14 DAY TRIAL // After previously criticizing Microsoft for its push for the Microsoft Store, claiming that the Redmond-based software giant wanted to build a closed platform for developers, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney is now going after Apple and Google.
Both have built app stores that are entirely based on the idea of monopoly, Sweeney explains pointing to the 30% fee that developers need to pay to Google and Apple for app sales.
In an interview with CNBC, Sweeney emphasizes that the extra fees that devs need to agree with only increase the price of the apps and games. Apple has invented what he calls “an absolute monopoly,” while Google crushes competition stores with “UI barriers.”
Antitrust hearing next week
Epic Games has previously released Fortnite for Android, one of the most popular games on mobile devices, as a stand-alone APK installer in an attempt to avoid the 30 percent fee on sales through the Google Play Store. However, the game was eventually published in the store after Sweeney admitted that getting it manually was considered a too complicated process for some of its users.
“Google essentially intentionally stifles competing stores by having user interface barriers and obstruction,” Sweeney was quoted as saying by CNBC.
“If every developer could accept their own payments and avoid the 30% tax by Apple and Google we could pass the savings along to all our consumers and players would get a better deal on items. And you’d have economic competition.”
Sweeney’s company launched the Epic Game Store last year, with developers required to pay a fee of just 12 percent of all sales made through the store.
“Apple has locked down and crippled the ecosystem by inventing an absolute monopoly on the distribution of software, on the monetization of software,” Sweeney explains.
Next week, representatives of several tech giants, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, will testify in a Congress hearing regarding a series of competition concerns.