In the 80s, the game console makers did not operate the store where you were buying games. Even, you could buy second-hand games without Atari or Nintendo receiving any part of the fee!
Even back in the 80s, the console makers “controlled distribution”. Nintendo forced third parties to use their manufacturing facilities and they all force third parties to distribute their haves with a license key.
Console makers have always forced third parties to pay a fee to distribute their games.
The ruling is less about Apple forcing consumers to buy only through the AppStore, and more about only allowing sellers to sell through the AppStore.
If I make a PS4 game, or a Nintendo Switch game, I can sell it on the PSN store and/or Nintendo e-Shop, sure, but I can also produce a physical copy that I can obtain outside of the store, and that is definitely not the case for Apple software developers.
Apple software developers MUST go through the AppStore and they MUST pay that fee, no matter what.
It is that specific lack of competition; the lack of other places to sell your iOS applications, that the USSC judged against, by my reading.
What’s the practical difference? The console makers still control physical distribution by forcing third parties to obtain a key, they have to approve all software that goes on their console, and they get a cut of each game sold.
Today, almost all games have an online component - that only work on console controlled networks.
> If I make a PS4 game, or a Nintendo Switch game, I can sell it on the PSN store and/or Nintendo e-Shop, sure, but I can also produce a physical copy that I can obtain outside of the store, and that is definitely not the case for Apple software developers.
> Apple software developers MUST go through the AppStore and they MUST pay that fee, no matter what.
I think you also need to pay a fee to publish any PS4 or Switch game that would run on untampered consoles.
