Adam Kos It's been really busy this week, with Apple finally revealing how it's going to adapt to the Digital Markets Act, which comes into effect in March and curbs its dominant position in iOS. But it doesn't have to be all bad, because it has other side effects that many may not have been aware of. It will especially please mobile gamers.
Remember the Epic Games case? The developer of the hugely popular Fortnite game tried to sneak in-app purchases into the App Store that bypassed Apple's fees. He kicked the title out of the App Store for that and it hasn't returned there. A long court battle followed, when we still can't play Fortnite on iPhones. But we will be able to again this year.
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The Epic Games studio has announced that starting this year it will run the "Epic Store" on the iPhone, which is precisely what changes in iOS with regard to EU law make it possible. And that's why Fortnite will get on iPhones again, only through its coveted and own digital store, not the App Store. So this is the first positive, which we will only be able to enjoy in the EU, others are out of luck, because Apple is not changing anything there in this regard.
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Cloud gaming through native applications
But where Apple has slacked off globally is cloud gaming. So far it worked, but it was only by hand, i.e. through a web browser. Apple told all platforms to deliver the game to the App Store separately, and not through some platform like Xbox Cloud Gaming. Of course, that was unrealistic. But now it has updated its App Store policies, backing away from its long-standing ban on game streaming apps. Of course, a game streaming app has to conform to the usual list of other traditional App Store rules, but it's a big step. If he had come earlier, we might still have Google Stadia here.
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To support the game streaming app category, Apple is also adding new features to help improve the discovery of streamed games and other widgets such as chatbots or plugins. They will also include support for separate in-app purchases, such as individual chatbot subscriptions. As it seems, everything bad is good for something, and in this respect we can thank the EU, because without its intervention, this would certainly never have happened.
Well, so instead of checking the apps properly and not letting dangerous, infected, etc. apps into the "AppStore", everyone installs anything from anywhere, just like on Android, which is notorious for its security problems.
Well, that's really a win.
The worst part is that then these idiots will threaten the entire Apple ecosystem, because those infected systems/devices will also infect devices that have not installed anything from alternative stores.
In short, it will be a win for everyone, because of a few morons who want to play an absolutely moronic game on mobile.
Exactly. The others are obviously not very aware of this, the stupid legislators in the EU certainly not. And we still have to be grateful to them for that?