Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Criticizes Apple Over App Store Price Increases

Apple is today beginning to implement App Store pricing increases across all territories and countries that use the euro, with the hike attributed to the euro's weakness against the U.S. dollar. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, whose company is currently embroiled in a legal battle with Apple, spoke up on the price update and said Apple had no justification for it.

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In a statement, Sweeney likened Apple to a landlord with tenants that have nowhere else to go as there is no alternative ‌App Store‌ for developers to use.

Imagine if a landlord told their small business tenant they had to increase their prices without any say in the matter or anywhere else to go. That is what Apple is doing to developers for no other reason than to pad Apple's bottom line. They are unilaterally imposing a price increase on developers across multiple countries without any justification. Developers don't have a choice but to comply because the App Store is the only way they can reach over a billion iOS users.

Apple first announced the price increases last month, giving developers about three weeks notice. ‌App Store‌ pricing works on a tiered basis, and what Apple is doing is raising the cost of all preset tiers. The minimum €0.99 tier, for example, has jumped to to €1.19, while the maximum tier has increased from €999 to €1,199. Full pricing tiers are listed on Apple's website.

Along with countries that use the euro, Apple is also increasing prices in Chile, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, and Vietnam.

Developers who sell apps in countries that use the euro can lower their ‌App Store‌ prices or pass the higher cost along to consumers, but as Sweeney points out, there is no alternate method for developers to provide apps to customers on iPhones and iPads without using Apple's ‌App Store‌.

‌Epic Games‌ and Apple have been engaged in a long legal battle over Apple's ‌App Store‌ policies. Sweeney and his company deliberately broke the App Store rules and then filed a lawsuit against Apple with the hope that the court would order Apple to allow third-party app stores to operate on iOS devices.

The lawsuit did not go in Epic Games' favor and Apple was not ordered to support alternate app stores. The two companies are now engaged in a lengthy appeals process, and Apple is also facing legislation in multiple countries that could ultimately require it to make some changes to allow for sideloading.

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Top Rated Comments

GizmoDVD Avatar
36 months ago
Tim Epic, GO AWAY.

You lost. You lost hard. You lost millions upon millions of players who will never come back to Fortnite.

But, every week, I will gladly redeem my free games you pay for that I'll never play :)
Score: 66 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
36 months ago
App Store belongs to Apple. This is their business. Tim Sweeney continues to play with fire. He just needs to stay away.
Score: 57 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cpfoto2005 Avatar
36 months ago
Next time my landlord wants to raise my rent, I'll send him to Tim Sweeney. That should work.
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JM Avatar
36 months ago
But I thought Epic was for a free and open marketplace?



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Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GMShadow Avatar
36 months ago
Why give this guy oxygen? He lost, he's a perennial loser, and he should be left to squalk into the ether.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SoldOnApple Avatar
36 months ago
It's called inflation mr Sweeney Todd. Since 2007 99 cents is now worth more than $1.40. So with these new prices apps are actually cheaper now than they were in 2007 when the iPhone launched. The App Store actually launched 2008, so inflation since then means 99 cents is now worth $1.36. Raising the prices helps developers more than Apple, because developers get 70% cut of their app sales, Apple only gets 30. Of course if you can't or refuse to sell your app on the App Store then you get 0% and Apple gets 0%, so no one wins there.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)