> It’s not like anyone will be forced to use another AppStore if he wants to stay on the apple one for security!
That’s exactly what is happening on PC gaming right now. Every game comes with it’s own AppStore (or similar bunch of extra software).
I’m torn on this. I do agree with users having more choice, but I also see the huge value of Apple being able to protect user’s privacy and security by having a tight control of the AppStore.
Back in ye olden days, apps either shipped with their own updater, or shipped with no updater.
If my understanding of the history is right, that's how Steam was born. A unified update tool for Valve's games. It was pretty cool that all my Valve games were managed in one place! "I wish every company did this!". While it was nice that there was really only one primary place for games (Steam) for a while. And it's really nice when most games can be acquired in one or two places. I think the landscape has changed and "download managers" and their glorified counter part "app stores" are much more common... at least the worst case scenario is what I once wished... "Every company/publisher has their own App Store"
Competition is key though. Plenty of publishers know that ditching established installers and app stores comes with a price, and so publishing or at least co-publishing on steam/epic/gog/etc is pretty important.
And the consumer experience isn't great when jumping between games during the day means opening 3 different launchers and having them constantly run in the background if you don't manually close them.
I've said this before: if Epic wins the lawsuit, you're going to either see the Epic launcher show up on Xbox, Playstation, and Switch or Epic's going to 'negotiate' with those publishers to get an extra 15% (or more) cut of sales.
I’d rather have that than the current situation on mobile where because of the 30% cut, every game is littered with ads or pay to win tactics to increase their margins. The situation for games on desktop and console and handheld portable consoles is leaps and bounds better than mobile.
I don’t see how a launcher would need to be allowed. Only a new store to purchase. Xbox, PlayStation, etc. could have some policy still that says that when you launch a game it must not spawn any persistent background service or that it must launch directly without a launcher.
Right but to me that seems like a good thing. In fact, don't you think it is a little bit risky to have all your games in the steam library, protected by DRM? What if steam stops being around?
Having different stores also forces these publishers to be more creative to get people on their platforms, see the weekly free games in the Epic Games Launcher.
If there was no competition, there wouldn't be the possibility to buy DRM free games on GOG for example.
That’s exactly what is happening on PC gaming right now. Every game comes with it’s own AppStore (or similar bunch of extra software).
I’m torn on this. I do agree with users having more choice, but I also see the huge value of Apple being able to protect user’s privacy and security by having a tight control of the AppStore.