Yes, that's right there's been one more major development in the real life Anime duel between the Grey fruit and the gaming's premium mircotransaction dairy cow. And this does have the potential to be the last major update for a long while due to the disappearance of this case to the Phantom Zone, otherwise known as courts, meaning this duel will go the way of every Dragon Ball Z fight and get itself ballooned to the length of months when it all could have been solved in the twenty minute mark. (Damn you, Filler gods!) So whilst Apples prepares it's darkest arts and squares itself with the sacrifices it will take, Epic prepares it's spirit-bomb and must call upon the aid of his allies for their contribution, and I cannot miss this opportunity to look them over one last time and see what becomes of the world's most dangerous game: Corporate scuffles.
So maybe you've been keeping abreast of everything or maybe you haven't, either way; here's your regularly scheduled recap. Last time on 'Epic X Apple': Elders of the Epic clan decide that they've had enough of spending the 30% commission that one is required to commit in order to display goods on Apple-san's markets, prompting a brazen move on Epic's part to publicly declare a complete circumvention of Apple's Market place, specifically for their most promising product; Fortnite. Unfortunately, this breaks the ancient pact signed long ago between the two clans, providing the impetus for war between the old frenemies. Does the Epic-clan stand a chance against the might of the Apple empire? Will their court injunction be enough to stop the Apple clan for going straight for the kneecaps? And will any of the other clans have the bravery to step up and stand with Epic? Find out on this week's episode of 'Epic X Apple'!
So the cliffhanger from last time was really where it was the most heated in this fight. Apple had decided to kneejerk against Epic in the most hardcore way and threatened to remove Epic's developer account in the Apple ecosystem, a move which would cut off all of Epic's software from the store, including 'Unreal Engine'. (The most popular game engine in the world next to Apple's own Unity.) This would essentially make any game developers on the Apple store incapable of updating their apps and utterly freeze their development efforts. Now on one hand this would really be a shot-in-the-foot to Apple because they'd be screwing over a lot of their own developers who had nothing to do with this back and forth, but they were betting it would hurt Epic a lot more due to the loss of trust they'd undergo as being the 'instigator' of this fight. Naturally, this dirty tactic was frowned upon by the parties involved and Epic sought out a court injunction to prevent Apple from making this bold move. Well the results are in and the court says; Apple is not allowed to bring this private scrap between the two companies into the ecosystem of the entire Apple market just for a power move. This started as a petty bar-room brawl, that's how it should end.
So quite a blow to the Apple camp right away; who knows how they will ever recover from this? But the hits to the gut just keep coming, it would seem, as no sooner had that news started doing the rounds that a new contender entered the ring to confirm their support for the underdog in this fight; Epic. Microsoft, famed Apple competitors, roused their sleeping selves recently when they heard about the drastic measures Apple threatened to take and came out in condemnation of Apple's practises. They argued, as the Courts ultimately ended up ruling, that Apple were overreaching in attempting to kill off Unreal just to strong-arm Epic, and cited their own racing game 'Forza' for mobile, as potential collateral in all of this. So on one hand they've said nothing that everybody doesn't already know, (they didn't even touch on the 30% commission issue as Mircosoft charge something similar.) but on the otherhand it makes for attention grabbing headlines and certainly does paint Apple as the greedy dictatorial overlords that Epic needs them to appear to be in order to win this battle of cultures.
As a consequence of all this, the heads over in the Apple camp have had a distinct change of pace when it comes to how they wanted to handle this, and it's pretty much an inalienable invitation to legal war. You see, when Epic first received a limp glove-slap across the face, with the removal of Epic from the Apple store, it was done with the stipulation that as soon as Epic swallowed their damn pride and came crawling back to Apple's standards, everything could go on as normal. Of course, with how transparently orchestrated this whole affair was it's obvious that Epic wasn't going to go for such an easy L. 'They're not that weak-willed'. This tactic of "We'll slap you around, but you can come back home at any time" continued for a long while, up until Saturday where Apple, the mile long ship, cottoned into the obvious fact that Epic were in this for the long haul. (Duh!) That day, Apple terminated Epic's app store account, making it so that Epic can publish and support no more games on the Apple infrastructure. Chilling indeed.
What started off as a very robotic exchange of documents has evolved into what feels like a very emotional charged and personal anime, and I for one have no idea where it plans to go from here. On one hand you'd think that there isn't any chips left to lay on either side but on the otherhand there is a huge number of other developers on the Apple platform that stand to gain if this 30% commission is successfully clapped back against, or if Apple are forced to concede a second marketplace on the Apple infrastructure. (Which I feel is Epic's ultimate plan.) The only question is how many of those devs are willing to risk biting the hand that feeds them in order to fight for their own well being; as this is certainly a high-risk, high-reward proposition. It's in everyone's interests to be on the right side of history here.
It is quite amusing, sitting as a fellow with no stakes one way or the other, to watch Epic prostate themselves as the Jesus of small-time developers when they are themselves a violently rich corporation. Apple took the time to point that out themselves, their store had helped greatly shore up Epics funds but now they've suddenly decided they are too good for Apple and thus need to go their own way. It's hypocrisy that a lot of people fall far, though one might argue that it might be good in the long run if Epic can force their way onto Apple devices and start offering their patented 15% commission. But then, why in the world would Apple ever wantonly agree to be undercut by a competitor on their own devices? Does any court actually have the power to force Apple to self-sabotage like that? And if Epic win this fight, who will they go up against next? How long before they turn on Microsoft and Sony to start forcing their way onto console stores? Epic is essentially kid Goku right now, ever ready to fight bigger folk around them and push further than one would think possible, but make no mistake they will turn into the mega-corporations they apparently 'oppose' if they get their way. It's the circle of corporate life.
The breaking up of major tech companies is something that needs to be done and sooner rather than later, but this should be in the effort to cut down on monopolies rather than to make way for a new, potentially bigger, one to take it's place. Now I'm not claiming that Epic has some sort of deep-seeded design on total global market domination or anything (at least, not to any degree of commitment which could make me legally liable) but I worry for the precedent they work to set in the very near future. I'm no economist, I can't speak for the wide-spread commercial ramifications or benefits for the world that Epic is attempting to pave they way for, I just know that from a consumer level this spells a level of impending inconvenience that I'm becoming increasingly uncomfortable with as the age of data-supremacy descends across the globe. Am I sounding like a paranoid old lady over the fact that Epic want to get their software on my phone, computer, console, fitbit and pace-maker? Maybe. But I'd rather be a pearl-clutcher than a blind fool who reacts several years too late.
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