Comment by bigyabai

Comment by bigyabai 3 days ago

It was 2008; "big box" software was largely seen as obsolete to the vast majority of developers. Marketing was done online, and the benefit of investing in retail had stopped outweighing the consequences. Online updates quickly became the norm, and service features supplanted point-of-sale business model (much like Apple's double-dip into microtransaction profits).

Apple chose 30% because they knew they weren't a retailer. You can hunt for a cheaper Diablo II copy online or at Wal-Mart, but not on iPhone.

trimbo 3 days ago

> It was 2008; "big box" software was largely seen as obsolete to the vast majority of developers.

Well, I'm just reporting it as I understood their decision in the moment. I was working on The Sims at that time, and I assure you, retailers still mattered to us bigly.

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bigyabai 3 days ago

And what you quoted is my opinion as a consumer. Blizzard got it working in 1996, Valve figured it out in 2003 - the industry was moving on.
EA was an outlier, and by the time they capitulated and started Origin it was so bad that people regret signing up for the service. GoG didn't have this issue, Valve didn't have that issue, EA did.

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danpalmer 3 days ago

I think console games were the exception to this. It took until recently with the PS5 to get a diskless console model.

Apple see the iPhone as a game console, not that anyone else thinks of it in that way.

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