Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls out the Apple App Store in his latest interview. The Fortnite owner also talked about the Cupertino policy and called Facebook an ally on the metaverse.
Epic CEO Criticizes the App Store
In his interview with The Financial Times, Sweeney said that the app store is not a service. Instead, it is a disservice to developers.
In 2021, after Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers ruled that the Apple App Store and its guidelines do not violate any antitrust laws, Sweeney expressed his dismay over the decision and said that Judge Rogers erred on her ruling.
Since the end of the Epic vs. Apple case, Sweeney has been tackling Apple App Store policies, especially when the tech giant lacks to maintain the store as a safe place for its users because of the scam apps still available on the platform.
The Epic CEO also talked about his plans to launch a metaverse with Fortnite. He also praised Meta, the company that owns Facebook, and called it an ally, according to 9to5Mac.
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Apple App Store is a "Disservice"
On May 25, Apple published two pieces of research that showed the iOS app economy now fully supports more than 2.2 million jobs in the United States.
The iOS app economy also increased the US small developer earnings by 118% since 2020. Despite the numbers, Sweeney still called the app economy a disservice to developers.
Sweeney pointed out that the app store forces the developers to treat their software in a sub-par way in order to give customers a sub-par experience.
He also said that the app store charges developers uncompetitive processing fees to inflate the price of digital goods.
The Epic CEO called the entire process a "bizarre scheme that should never have been created" and added that it should have been reversed as soon as the app industry began to reach a certain scale, according to MacRumors.
Sweeney says that while Apple has the right to profit from hardware, it can't profit from software. He calls the 30% cut a "monopoly" because PayPal charges 3% and credit cards such as Visa and Mastercard charge 2%.
Sweeney explained that Apple makes smartphones, and the company profits from that. But then the tech giant forces all of its buyers to use their app store exclusively for obtaining digital content.
That prevents all other app stores from competing with them on hardware that is owned by billions of users. He said that it completely obstructs all competition.
He also said that Apple forces all apps in their app store to use their payment service for digital goods.
Sweeney admitted that he's afraid of the "current monopolies" that use their power to become the next monopolies on new generations of platforms.
The Epic CEO has a different opinion on Meta, though. He said that the social media giant has two sides.
On one side is the metaverse, which he describes as an "interesting vision." He said that the company is contributing to the standards and practices that can lead toward an open metaverse.
On the other side is Meta, which he says controls the ad economy. However, the revenue share for the creators on its social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram is too small.
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Written by Sophie Webster
