Epic also gave AltStore a bag of money and as a result the Apple mob fee to install AltStore (€1,50/year + VAT) has been covered by AltStore themselves. Amazing how Epics pettiness now subsidises the pettiness of Apple.
Noticed some weird sections in their end uset agreement, maybe someone smatter than me can explain if this is normal.
“We've put this up front (and in caps) because it's important:
THIS AGREEMENT CONTAINS A BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND CLASS-ACTION WAIVER PROVISION.
IF YOU ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT, YOU AND EPIC AGREE TO RESOLVE CERTAIN DISPUTES IN BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND GIVE UP THE RIGHT TO GO TO COURT INDIVIDUALLY OR AS PART OF A CLASS ACTION, AND EPIC AGREES TO PAY YOUR ARBITRATION COSTS FOR ALL DISPUTES OF UP TO $10,000 THAT ARE MADE IN GOOD FAITH (SEE SECTION 12).
TO ENTER INTO THIS AGREEMENT, YOU MUST BE AN ADULT OF THE LEGAL AGE OF MAJORITY IN YOUR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE. YOU ARE LEGALLY AND FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL ACTIONS USING OR ACCESSING OUR SOFTWARE, INCLUDING THE ACTIONS OF ANYONE YOU ALLOW TO ACCESS YOUR ACCOUNT. YOU AFFIRM THAT YOU HAVE REACHED THE LEGAL AGE OF MAJORITY, UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT (INCLUDING ITS DISPUTE RESOLUTION TERMS). IF YOU ARE UNDER THE LEGAL AGE OF MAJORITY, YOUR PARENT OR LEGAL GUARDIAN MUST CONSENT TO THIS AGREEMENT.”
> Thanks to fair legislation being passed, we will be able to bring the Epic Games Store to the UK and Japan soon, and will follow suit in any other country that passes legislation allowing third party marketplaces on iPhone devices.
I didn't think the UKs Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act went as far as the DMA.
Edit: Seems the UKs Act lets the CMA investigate and demand companies do changes to promote competition, vs the DMAs blanket requirements on large tech companies.
> Yes, it works, but Apple didn’t put too much effort in user friendlyness:
The iOS Settings app also has a search bar that you can use to find every submenu... Except for the "App Installation" subsection where you have to approve/manage alternative app stores.
Surely just a regrettable oversight by a singular engineer that unfortunately made it past QA. And that also wasn't caught when they reorganized a lot of the subsections for the iOS 18 beta. Unlucky. :)
Just installed it as a test. The prompts were a bit non-obvious (in true Apple fashion, I needed to go to the settings to click a special menu option to actually permit the installation) and I think my face was scanned about three times by FaceID, but it works.
My Safari on iOS doesn't give a prompt for accepting the marketplace like in the instruction video. No notifications in the iOS settings either. Using Brave, fownload website complains I don't have iOS 17.6 installed even though I have 17.6.1. And they don't seem to support Firefox on iOS. So seems like the installation process still has some rough edges.
So this gave me as a consumer much more choice. I can now install Fortnite using the Epic store and … well just the Epic store. I am so glad that as user I can now choose which shop I spend my money and give my credit card info.
I can see what you mean, but you do have the option to install EGS on your PC, you just choose not to. There was no way to install a separate app store on iOS.
FWIW, I also prefer Steam and dislike needing EGS, but I have the option to install it no problem without being restricted by something like Microsoft when I'm on the Windows platform.
That’s not the question though. If software is not available on a platform it is just not available. If I write a software for windows you can’t sue me for the software not working on your Samsung smart fridge.
Epic on the other hand bought some fridge native software and made sure that you can’t run it on your fridge anymore.
>Epic on the other hand bought some fridge native software and made sure that you can’t run it on your fridge anymore.
But it _can_ still run, you just need to install a new piece of software (EGS) that you don't want to.
The reason the software wasn't available on the other platform is due to restriction of the platform maintainer (not arguing whether Apple should or shouldn't have that right).
It's been a while since I've played Rocket League (I purchased through Steam), but I was under the impression that it still runs and updated via Steam, but new users don't have access to download except via EGS. Am I off target there?
Having exclusives is unrelated to the store walled garden conversation. I have a game, I can choose my store's infrastructure to exclusively sell this game. For instance, if Walmart made a game, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect Walmart to be the only one distributing it - however Walmart would have to accept the consequences of doing so, which would include people who refuse to go to Walmart not being able to buy the game.
The Apple store walled garden is a completely different beast altogether. Not only Apple sells their software through the store, it requires everybody else to also do so. That reduces competition because it prevents others from lowering their prices beyond a certain point and distributing content that Apple finds objectionable (some of which would undermine Apple's semi-monopoly, such as portable apps using certain technologies like emulation).
Neither Apple nor Epic are very sympathetic when it comes to software freedom. However, in this specific case, Epic is the better of the two.
There's no way this "core technology fee" will survive the inevitable Epic v. Apple lawsuit. I think Epic is just waiting to rack up enough "fees" to make it viable to show how damaging Apple is to the ecosystem so they can correct this in court.
So? I have bought a game that wasn’t developed by epic from a company that isn’t epic.
But out of nothing epic expects me to create a account for a service that I have no intention of using and takes away my access to a product I already paid for.
The other AltStore abuses development signatures and requires you to re-sign apps regularly (which I'm pretty sure is a violation of Apple's ToS so you also risk getting your account banned if Apple starts taking action). That's not really comparable to a normal app store, in my opinion.
I assume Playstation AND Xbox AND Google Play all allow third party payments? Because they all take 30% the same as Apple. Is allowing third party payments the only difference?
https://x.com/altstoreio/status/1823826482046886273