“I bet Valve made more profit from most of the next 1000 than the developer themselves made.”
www.theverge.com
If you guessed Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, you’re right — and he said it to Valve’s face, later telling Gabe Newell he was among the “assholes telling the world that the strong and powerful get special terms, while 30% is for the little people.” It’s from a cache of mostly redacted exhibits in a potential class-action lawsuit against Valve. Simon Carless dug them up, read more:

Sent: Monday, December 3, 2018 4:13 PM

To: Gabe Newell; Erik Johnson

Ok, our announcement (below) is going live with tomorrow. The Epic Games store is launching Thursday at The Game Awards.

Later this week, we’ll be escalating a conversation with Apple in which an authoritarian government (not China) is demanding that either Epic alter Fortnite on iOS or Apple block it, and we’ll be responding with a memo on the human rights principles that would be violated by either action. We’ll be refusing and asking Apple to either continue to carrying Fortnite or to permit Epic to distribute it directly to customers through an Enterprise Certificate, and escalating as needed. Fortnite is consistently the top-grossing game on iOS.

So, the question of open platforms and store economics will be foremost on Apple execs’ minds this week. I believe the best outcome can be achieved if Apple speedily concludes that the combination of an app store monopoly and 30% fees is untenable, and that opening iOS up is the best stop-loss strategy.

Right now, you assholes are telling the world that the strong and powerful get special terms, while 30% is for the little people. We’re all in for a prolonged battle if Apple tries to keep their monopoly and 30% by cutting backroom deals with big publishers to keep them quiet. Why not give ALL developers a better deal? What better way is there to convince Apple quickly that their model is now totally untenable?

-Tim