Last year Apple responded to a ruling in an antitrust case that required the company to allow app developers to collect payments from users without going through App Store by allowing developers to provide links to alternate payment methods in their apps.
But the system that Apple rolled out was pretty onerous. Users who followed those links would see a scare screen noting that Apple couldn’t guarantee the security of those payments, and then Apple still collected commission fees on payments made outside the App Store that were almost as high as fees charged for App Store payments. This week a US District Court Judge ordered Apple to stop doing that. Now the Epic Games Store is moving quickly to attract developers to its platform by offering a better revenue split.
To be clear, the latest court ruling does not mean Apple has to allow alternate app stores on iOS in the US (the way it does in Europe). That means the only way most people can load third-party apps on an iPhone or iPad in the US is still to go through the App Store.
And if those apps include in-app billing for subscriptions or other in-app purchases, developers still need to use Apple’s payment system.
But as of last year, developers could include links that would take a visitor to a website where they could use a different payment service. There just wasn’t much reason to do that when Apple was charging a 27 percent fee (almost as much as the 30 percent fee charged for in-app payments).
So while there’s an Epic Games Store app for Android that you can install and run as an alternative to the Google Play Store, that won’t be the case for the Epic Games Store for iOS (for users in the US, at least).
Instead, Epic is adding a “webshop” option that lets developers “launch their own webshops hosted by the Epic Games Store. These webshops can offer players out-of-app purchases, as a more cost-effective alternative to in-app purchases.”
So what’s the appeal for users and developers? Apple charges developers a 15 percent commission on purchases up to $1 million and 30 percent after that. Epic says that developers won’t pay any commission on their first $1 million in revenue per app per year. After that, they’ll pay a 12 percent fee to Epic.
Not only could that save developers money, but it could make it worth their while to pass at least some of those savings on to users by charging a lower price for out-of-app purchase than they do for in-app purchases.
Sure, it means that users will have to tap their phone a few more times, and maybe enter their billing information to check out. But that might be a small inconvenience if it saves you you enough money.
It remains to be seen whether developers will flock to the Epic Games Store’s new webshop options, whether users will get used to the idea of out-of-app billing, or even if the current situation will remain in place for long. Apple has already said it plans to appeal this week’s ruling.
