Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Renews Blast At 'Gatekeeper' Platform Owners (venturebeat.com) 18
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney opened the Unreal Fest Seattle event today with an update on news that included a blistering criticism of monopolistic platform owners. Sweeney is a big proponent of open platforms and the open metaverse. In fact, he will talk about that subject in a virtual talk at our GamesBeat Next 2024 event on October 28-29 in San Francisco. (You can use this code for a 25% discount: gbn24dean). And so Sweeney continues to pressure the major platforms to give more favorable terms to game developers. He started out on that front by giving a price cut for users of Unreal Engine 5, Epic's tools for making games. For those who release games first or simultaneously on the Epic Games Store, Epic is cutting its royalty rate from 5% to 3.5% for Unreal developers. He noted that Epic is in better financial shape than it was a year ago, when Epic had to lay off a lot of staff. Sweeney said the company spent the last year rebuilding. "We're at a point now where game development is expensive. It's low margin, and game companies are suffering. Apple and Google make way more profit from most games than the developers make themselves, while contributing nothing," Sweeney said.
Sweeney reminisced about programming on early Apple computers, aligning with Steve Wozniak's vision for Apple where users had complete freedom without corporate restrictions. He contrasted this with today's mobile platforms, accusing Apple and Google of acting as gatekeepers that stifle innovation. "Among the fights we've taken on here, he noted the case with Apple is still an ongoing fight to open up payments so developers can process payments without Apple mediation and without Apple fees," he said, noting the "massive victory" against Google in a jury trial late last year.
Sweeney reminisced about programming on early Apple computers, aligning with Steve Wozniak's vision for Apple where users had complete freedom without corporate restrictions. He contrasted this with today's mobile platforms, accusing Apple and Google of acting as gatekeepers that stifle innovation. "Among the fights we've taken on here, he noted the case with Apple is still an ongoing fight to open up payments so developers can process payments without Apple mediation and without Apple fees," he said, noting the "massive victory" against Google in a jury trial late last year.
Profits (Score:2)
Epic used to earn Billions USD. Now it merely earns hundreds of millions USD. There's no profit in that?
Re: (Score:3)
Epic made 6 billion last year, mostly on Fortnight sales. I mean, yeah, it is only 6000 million dollars. What a trifle. They should be making 6000000 million.
Re: (Score:2)
Epic made 6 billion last year, mostly on Fortnight sales. I mean, yeah, it is only 6000 million dollars. ....
Let me fix that for you, "Epic made 6 billion last year overcharging kids for vbucks, manipulating them into playing too much and letting cheaters pubstomp and abuse them.
The matchmaking is EOMM which is both unfair and manipulative, Fortnite needs real SBMM to be fair and have a level playing field in casual (non-ranked) matches. Cheating is rampant and Epic doesn't seem to ban anyone unless the player makes a public display of cheating or gets caught in a tournament. It's obvious that the only thing Epic
Failed Single White App Store Attempt (Score:1)
distribution channels (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Distribution channels often make more money than the thing they are distributing.
Then why distribute anything at all?
Re: distribution channels (Score:3)
Sweeney was always scummy (Score:3)
His paid-for-exclusives programme was always scummy and anti-consumer.
That horrific excuse for a scummy storefront was always scummy.
So what does this say about the consumers who engage with Epic?
Re: (Score:2)
Both are far less scummy than intentional monopolizing and price gouging. What does that say about people who are trying to defend monopolizing and price gouging?
He is just sore his own platform failed (Score:3)
Dishonest CEO here, nothing to see.
Re: (Score:2)
Dishonest CEO here, nothing to see.
Indeed. From TFS: "Sweeney is a big proponent of open platforms and the open metaverse."
Number of open platforms supported by Epic: 0.
Article ran through bullshit translator: (Score:5, Insightful)
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney opened the Unreal Fest Seattle event today with an update on news that included a blistering criticism of of other more popular stores which aren't engaging in monopolistic behaviour despite what he thinks. Sweeney is a big proponent of trying to make as much money as possible. In fact, he will talk about that subject in a virtual talk at our GamesBeat Next 2024 event on October 28-29 in San Francisco. (You can use this code for a 25% discount: gbn24dean). And so Sweeney continues to pressure the major platforms to give more favorable terms to him so he makes more money. He started out on that front by giving a price cut for users of Unreal Engine 5, Epic's tools for making games. For those who release games first or simultaneously on the Epic Games Store, Epic is cutting its royalty rate from 5% to 3.5% for Unreal developers a practice which would actually be considered monopolising if the Epic store was in any way popular enough to have market power. He noted that Epic is in better financial shape than it was a year ago, when Epic had to lay off a lot of staff due to Tim's other monopolizing behaviour of spending literal billions to attempt to make 3rd party games exclusive to his ailing platform. Sweeney said the company spent the last year reflecting that his bullshit strategy failed.
To continue to cut through the rest of the bullshit, Sweeney claims Apple and Google contribute nothing, while actual games released on the Epic Store, even AAA titles have failed spectacularly only to recoup a mountain of losses when released on another store - which goes to show that these guys while making money contribute more to game sales than Sweeney likes to admit.
As for stifling innovation, the only innovation that Sweeney is being prevented in undertaking is creating even more of a casino aimed at kids to separate them from their Vbucks ... I mean real bucks.
Blame shifting? (Score:2)
We're at a point now where game development is expensive.
Then don't make it expensive. You chose to do that.
I don't need realistic graphics in a game that prevents me from running it on a five or six year old laptop. I don't need micro transactions or some in-game currency I can buy or sell. I don't need elaborate online features to play a local LAN game with friends.
A good story and user customisation makes a good game and fun to replay it again. So many simple games have become hits because of that.
The main reason... (Score:1)
Now game developers & audiences alike must pay the rent-seeking gate-keepers their tithes. Of course
Re: (Score:1)
Really? I don't think they had that much power back then. Maybe Flash died because something better and more secure came along. I guess the HTML 2D Canvas was part of that.
I have not seen a 2D game that doesn't feel like it couldn't be got close to in a browser with JS. 3D I know is different , Unity manage it , something is doable.
Video games started off with kids coding in their bedrooms being creative with very little. Then the Psycho CEOs took over and it's turned into what it is now, somewhere between
Stores (Score:2)
Personally I think the amount app stores charge for their services is insane.
Bitching (Score:2)
This is the main guy leading a fight against monopolists - and winning - and 2/3 of the people here side against developers because "Tim once did this other thing."
Amazing, but that's how monopolists get their power.
I'll back Tim at least until F-Droid can install security updates without root.
Godot (Score:2)