Apps

Hopeful Changes on the way for Apps

Having first been launched in 2008, apps have come a long way from the initial look at the different app marketplaces and the slim pickings that were on offer at first – there are now millions of different choices spanning a huge variety of different genres and niches with an app for just about anything. They’ve been so successful that one of the big steps forward has been for gaming, mobile gaming now accounts for the majority across all platforms and have allowed for different options to become popular, the likes of online games of chance with casinos and more online slots at casinogenie.org amongst many others have grown by some consideration, and recent changes to the app store could make these options more accessible too.

Hopeful Changes on the way for Apps
(Image from 9to5mac.com)

The change comes following the legal battle between games developer Epic Games and manufacturer Apple – standard practice for both Apple and Google had been to levy a 30% tax on all in-app purchases as a way to take their slice of the pie, and for the most part developers had stuck to the rules and paid their dues for all of the benefits offered by this arrangement. In 2020, however, Epic Games instead added a feature that allowed users to purchase the in-game currency directly from the developer and to avoid the additional cost, leading to more profits, but also the removal of their main game Fortnite from the various app stores. The legal battle that followed questioned whether the way the app stores operated had been anti-competitive, and if changes were needed to make options not only more fair to developers, but better for the user too.

Whilst the legal battle didn’t end in a big bang, more of a slight fizzle, it seems in small part the goal was achieved – the judge ruled that some measures may be seen as anti-competitive with new orders that this tariff should be removed as well as some fines aimed at Epic Games too – the restriction before hadn’t been to prevent genres like casinos from emerging as some have in the past, but more that the 30% cost cut considerably into margins and may not have been worth exploring until now, and this change may encourage many other operators to explore more dedicated options that are directly accessible through apps without the need to visit a website or link directly.

It’s still early days, and more changes will likely come with other platform adjustments, but the door is certainly open for big and very hopeful changes to the way users can access different apps, and what this may mean for developers and the way they grow their own games in the future too.

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