Works of Tiger Sniffing Mobile Information Group
Author | Huang Qingchun
Title Map | Visual China
When “Fortress Night” has been removed by Apple and Google, its publisher Epic may be reminded of the winter that declared war on Steam two years ago.
In just two years, this messy game developer has launched an assault on the PC hegemony Steam, and the mobile hegemony Apple and Google.
Why did Apple and Google remove “Fortnite”?
Yesterday, “Fortress Night” was removed from the two major app stores of Google Play and App Store, and it caused an uproar in the gaming circle for a while. This popular game naturally affects the hearts of thousands of players. .
The reason given by Apple for the delisting was: Developer Epic violated Apple’s terms of selling goods or services on the platform, and Google reconsidered.
In fact, Epic’s approach is simple and rude: This Thursday, Epic Games quietly added Epic Direct Payment on the “Fortress Night” recharge page ( Epic direct payment) option.
If the player purchases virtual goods in the App Store or Google Play Store, the price is the same as usual, but through the new payment channel, they can get a 20% in-game currency discount, avoiding the 30% commission from the middleman in the Apple Store.
For example, 1,000 game coins in the game can be purchased in the App Store for $9.99, while using Epic’s paid channels only cost $7.99.
Screenshots of the payment interface of Apple (top) and Google (bottom) stores
Gene Park said on Twitter that he successfully purchased V-bucks using Apple and Epic payment systems.
Epic bypassed Apple’s “rake mechanism” chicken thieves, apparently moving Apple’s cake.
According to the market research company Sensor Tower data shows that “Fortress Night” has been installed on Apple devices 133.2 million times since it was launched, and generated 1.2 billion US dollars in revenue in the global App Store. The number of pens was small, so it was quickly removed.
Apple and Google are so ruthless, Epic never expected. However, after reviewing the game, Epic started to make the situation stalemate by borrowing questions.
As soon as Apple and Google took the game off the shelves, Epic over there came up with a 60-page lawsuit against Apple, and hired Christine Varney, the head of the US Department of Justice’s antitrust department during the Obama administration, to fight This lawsuit.
Epic sues Google lawsuit
Epic stated in the indictment that this lawsuit was filed to end unfair and anti-competitive behavior. Apple violated the law to maintain its monopoly in the iOS application distribution market and iOS payment methods, and requested the court to issue Injunction to end Apple’s “unreasonable and illegal practices.”
Epic also released a satirical video tribute to Apple’s classic 1984 commercial on YouTube and Fortnite, mocking the “Apple Tax.”
There is a saying that using one’s own advantages to obtain rule-makers is the norm in the commercial market. Since its launch in July 2008, the App Store on Apple’s iOS app store has charged developers with a 30% turnover.
Now, Epic’s law and public opinion tactics together seem to engulf countless game manufacturers and publishers trying to get Apple and Google into a situation of crusade by thousands of players from a moral high point. In fact, Epic’s tactic uses public opinion to manipulate and pressure. The trick is exactly the same as that of the steam war.
Epic can be called “Pinduoduo” in the game industry
In fact, there is nothing new for game makers to engage in small actions, and it has always been Epic’s strong point to play with questions.
Time back to August 2018, since Epic founder Tim Sweeney choked the 30% of Steam and GOG platforms were too high to start, which paved the way for all subsequent conflicts.
At that time, Tim Sweeney’s original words in an interview with GameInformer were , “Calculated by Epic Games, deducting 2.5% to 3.5% of payment costs, up to 1.5% of CDN costs, negligible platform development costs, 30% of the game store, profit margins can reach 300% to 400% , Is a very amazing business.”
Following four months later, Epic launched its own store Epic Games Store non-stop to launch a “price war”, targeting the PC platform overlord Steam.
In his official announcement, Tim Sweeney stated that developers on the platform can get 88% of game sales revenue. This means that compared to Steam’s 30% rake, Epic only charges 12%-if you use Unreal Engine to make games, you can also waive Unreal Engine’s 5% license fee.
For a time, the rhythm is changing, players and game manufacturers are led by Epic to denounce Steam.
According to an item titled“Everything Valve Should Know, 3.0” Survey Report Shows: 2018 Since then, game developers, especially Western game developers, have a sharp decline in their impressions of Valve and Steam. And they began to lose faith in Steam, they didn’t believe that it was reasonable for them to pay 30% to the store.
The darker the blue, the more satisfied, the darker the red, the more dissatisfied
Netizen @宇宙的Philosophy Directly compared Epic’s operation to the route of wooing the workers and peasants into a proletarian uprising, “significantly reducing the game manufacturer’s commission, and giving away games and players as brothers for free. Singing is actually to grab the right to speak in the market.”
However, due to pressure, Steam still made concessions and adjusted the rake rules to: 25% for game product revenue over 10 million US dollars; 20% for more than 50 million US dollars.
However, the new rules are obviously not friendly enough to independent game producers and small game studios, and are more like a compromise for the interests of 3A masterpieces and major manufacturers. As a result, independent game producers on social platforms have set off a second round of public opinion crusades.
Some gamers have described the fables of the two families as: In Original Sin 2 there are two trolls who have collected bridge fees, one for five thousand, one for one, and five for the other.One troll affects his own business and asks the player to solve the other, and the one who charges one piece has the same demand. Players generally kill five thousand trolls, but a piece of troll alive immediately raises the price to fifteen thousand and taunts the player.
In the blink of an eye in 2019, Epic’s previous provocations did not affect the player community’s choice of platform. Tim Sweeney once again shouted on the social network, “As long as Steam is like us and only draws 12%, we immediately cancel the monopoly and publish our latest games on Steam!”
As for Epic’s low 12% rake strategy, why didn’t it work in the game field, The blogger @九号游戏姬 pointedly pointed out: “12% draw is so unconvincing that the boss will emphasize it from time to time. I think it is because it is the same as Pinduoduo’s low price. The same is unreliable-the operating cost of the platform actually requires 30% of the commission to make money, so Apple, Sony, Steam and some other Internet platforms are all 30%.”
Is the 30% “toll fee” of the game platform expensive?
Many readers may not know that the rules of the game platform and the manufacturer’s 37% have been used in the industry for more than ten years.
Dating back to the first generation of game consoles, XBOX, PSN, and Nintendo do not charge. However, the three major factories arguably disarmed their competitors under the banner of free, and joined the ranks of fees without hesitation.
For platforms, game servers and platform maintenance are extremely expensive, and rake is the source of survival. But if you smoke too much, the manufacturer can’t stand it.The proliferation of junk games will backfire on the platform. In the end, game manufacturers and game platforms have played for many years, and the 30% threshold has gradually become the critical point for both sides to coexist and prosper.
Knowing the author @孟德尔 adds: “Sony leads the game After the industry, the game platform is generally royalty + production wholesale = 30%, retailer profit = 30%, publishers take 30%, and the remaining 10% fluctuates according to various factors. Developers will follow the publisher from this 30% Splitting accounts. Sony and Microsoft’s digital version of splitting accounts also follows this model, which is equivalent to helping manufacturers save retailers’ share.”
Nowadays, there are many PC game platforms on the market, such as Steam from V, GOG from Polish dumbass, WIN10 from Microsoft, uPlay from Ubisoft, Origin from EA, and Battle.net from Blizzard. Everyone defaults to a 30% standard. , It’s not that Apple and Google are “deceptive”.
Moreover, the game environment in foreign countries is better than that in China. This is inseparable from the long-term payment habits of foreign players. Apple and Google’s sampling rules have acted as environmental purifiers in a certain sense, blocking a large number of small garbage factories. The game enters the ecology, ensuring the quality of the application and the stability of the ecology.
If you have to condemn the problem of game drawing, domestic game manufacturers have the most say.
The poor domestic game environment is due to the late start of the industry, the lack of an industrial talent training mechanism, and no industrialized production process; on the other hand, it is obviously related to the platform’s hegemony and bad money driving out good money.
Netizens broke the news about a domestic platform rake data shows: p>