Epic CEO fears Apple's influence over the metaverse
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney believes Apple is a major "roadblock in the way of Epic's vision for a metaverse."
Credit: Epic Games
On Thursday, Epic Games discussed its plans for the metaverse at the Game Developers Conference 2023. The company believes the metaverse should be open and that "it can't be another walled garden."
The "walled garden" statement is a direct jab at Apple. Sweeney has routinely expressed this sentiment during Epic's long battle against Apple's App Store policies.
In an interview with GameIndustry, Sweeney expanded on his concerns.
"[Apple will] either try to crush the metaverse, or extract all the profit from it. One or the other. Apple doesn't let you use a competing browser engine. So they can do the same thing with the metaverse, so [they] can say, 'you must use Apple's limited metaverse engine, you can't build your own, you can't use Unreal."
It's not clear why Sweeney believes that the Unreal Engine won't be allowed on any AR or VR implementation by Apple. It is used in iPhone and Mac development now, and it seems unlikely that it will be disallowed going forward.
"If we just build this thing in an open environment then companies can live on their merits," Sweeney added. "We very much like that because we have a history of winning on the merits when given the chance and we're terribly frustrated at markets like iOS where you just can't make an Epic Games Store for iOS because Apple says 'You can't compete with us'!"
He says that he believes robust antitrust laws are the only way forward and that Epic would lead the charge against Apple's influence on the market.
"We see them as utterly dominating this business if they're allowed to use their market power and hardware to do so. So we're fighting that. The other challenges I think can all be overcome."
Sweeney has spoken out against Apple for some time now, but his feud escalated after Fortnite got removed from the App Store. It was removed after Epic violated their developer agreement by implementing a way that users could sidestep the 30% commission fee.
Apple's mixed reality headset is rumored to launch at WWDC 2023. The yet-unannounced headset is anticipated to be a wearable visor with mixed-reality software. It would be an at-home computer capable of transporting the user to different locations for work or play.
Read on AppleInsider
Credit: Epic Games
On Thursday, Epic Games discussed its plans for the metaverse at the Game Developers Conference 2023. The company believes the metaverse should be open and that "it can't be another walled garden."
The "walled garden" statement is a direct jab at Apple. Sweeney has routinely expressed this sentiment during Epic's long battle against Apple's App Store policies.
In an interview with GameIndustry, Sweeney expanded on his concerns.
"[Apple will] either try to crush the metaverse, or extract all the profit from it. One or the other. Apple doesn't let you use a competing browser engine. So they can do the same thing with the metaverse, so [they] can say, 'you must use Apple's limited metaverse engine, you can't build your own, you can't use Unreal."
It's not clear why Sweeney believes that the Unreal Engine won't be allowed on any AR or VR implementation by Apple. It is used in iPhone and Mac development now, and it seems unlikely that it will be disallowed going forward.
"If we just build this thing in an open environment then companies can live on their merits," Sweeney added. "We very much like that because we have a history of winning on the merits when given the chance and we're terribly frustrated at markets like iOS where you just can't make an Epic Games Store for iOS because Apple says 'You can't compete with us'!"
He says that he believes robust antitrust laws are the only way forward and that Epic would lead the charge against Apple's influence on the market.
"We see them as utterly dominating this business if they're allowed to use their market power and hardware to do so. So we're fighting that. The other challenges I think can all be overcome."
Sweeney has spoken out against Apple for some time now, but his feud escalated after Fortnite got removed from the App Store. It was removed after Epic violated their developer agreement by implementing a way that users could sidestep the 30% commission fee.
Apple's mixed reality headset is rumored to launch at WWDC 2023. The yet-unannounced headset is anticipated to be a wearable visor with mixed-reality software. It would be an at-home computer capable of transporting the user to different locations for work or play.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
I think the fact that people are is interested in VR as they were in 3D television is the risk factor.
The number of people who want this crap in any near future is a rounding error.
Epic must pay $245M after luring customers into 'Fortnite' purchases
And let’s be honest, with the quarter billion dollar fine Epic just got hit with for deceptive and abusive practices in Fortnight, it seems to me that they are the ones most likely to try to “ extract all the profit from it”. They are the ones with the history of deceit and abuse.
The Metaverse will not exist without Apple's participation.
Apple will create the Metaverse that people want to use.
Only Apple can create the glasses that people will want to use to access the Metaverse.
Even Facebook has given up on the Metaverse.
They realize that they cannot do it alone without Apple's help.
Unless of course his entire existence is a deep fake.
The question beyond that is if you want multiple metaverses (AKA Apple metaverse) or something standardised.
An Apple metaverse would be quite limited as it is a terminal device manufacturer and the notion of a true metaverse really depends on data (content) and moving it around in quantity, at speed and keeping latency very low.
That data should ideally be universal so I hope things move forward following standards and preferably open standards.
No blue vs green avatars. LOL.