Even in Japan, Apple's App Store undergoes antitrust investigation, other problems pointed out by developers



Epic Games, which develops the popular battle royal game

Fort Knight and the game engine Unreal Engine , sued that the App Store operated by Apple and Google Play operated by Google have collected too high fees. In response, Kazuyuki Sugimoto, Chairman of the Fair Trade Commission, which operates the Japanese Antimonopoly Act, also announced that he would proceed with his own investigation. Bloomberg reports some voices from Japanese game developers, saying, 'In Japan, there is a lot of dissatisfaction in areas other than Apple's monopoly.'

Apple App Store Draws New Scrutiny in Japan, Epicenter of Gaming-Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-03/apple-app-store-draws-new-scrutiny-in-japan-epicenter-of-gaming

Fortnite developer Epic Games contends that it violates antitrust laws, citing that the App Store collects 30% of its sales as a commission. Chairman of the Fair Trade Commission, Sugimoto, also said that he will conduct an independent investigation of the App Store, but Bloomberg said separately from Japanese game developers that 'App Store guidelines are inconsistent' and ' He points out that problems such as 'unpredictable decisions by Apple' and 'missing communication' have been pointed out.



The mobile app market is also a huge source of income for Japanese game makers, and Square Enix, which is familiar with the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series, relies on smartphone apps for 40% of its sales. In addition, ``Fate / Grand Order (FGO)'', a popular application of Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony, sold

71.1 billion yen in 2019, and there was a question and answer about FGO sales at Sony's financial results briefing It has become an important content.



According to the latest research data , 2019 sales in the App Store ecosystem in Japan are estimated to be $ 37 billion (about 3.9 trillion yen), which is a breakdown of physical goods and services (mail order services etc.) Sales are $24 billion (about 2.5 trillion yen), sales of digital contents are $11 billion (about 1.2 trillion yen), and in-app advertising is $2 billion (about 210 billion yen).



The App Store has become an important platform for Japanese game developers, but according to game developers, Google Play seems to have a smoother screening process and improved communication than the App Store. .. In other words, for Japanese game developers, the App Store hasn't seen any improvement and is still having many problems.

It is pointed out that the App Store has a complicated examination process and communication difficulties, but in order to solve such difficulties,

services that support the passage of the examination process have appeared in Japan. This service is provided by the application development company Prime Theory. Makoto Tobayashi, the company's representative, told Bloomberg, 'Apple's app examination is sometimes vague, subjective and irrational.' 'Apple's response to app developers is often abrupt and trite. However, it is necessary for the developer to respond to Apple carefully, 'What kind of action should I take next?', and said, 'A service that helps pass the examination process of the App Store.' Preaching the importance of.

Prime Theory provides high-quality support via phone and email to its developers, with 1400 advisors and customer service employees based in Japan. In addition, he seems to be translating App Store review guidelines and distributing the video of the annual conference for developers with Japanese subtitles.



Bloomberg said, 'In the first place, the Japanese game industry started with Nintendo's family computer cartridges in the 1980s, so few developers are concerned that the App Store collects 30% of sales as a commission. Instead, there are more developers who want to get better service from Apple.'

One game studio abandoned a limited-time event because Apple didn't respond to a game app update review request for more than a month. Mr. Tokaibayashi of Prime Theory said, ``Apple simply forgets items under review and leaves them alone, or intentionally leave updates as sanctions for developers with wrong attitudes. But we never admit that Apple is doing that.'

According to Apple, the App Store's app review team spans two time zones, so Japanese-speaking personnel can also talk directly to developers during business hours of a Japanese company. However, when Apple's server went down for more than a day in November 2019, the developer was not notified that there was a problem, and even before displaying the problem

on the system status screen on the support page. It seems that it took a long time. While Apple's server is down, app developers will not be able to deliver apps and will be financially burdened, but Apple is not making any compensation for such burdens.



In addition, Japanese game developers commented that 'sometimes conflicting measures may be taken without notice in advance regarding appropriate interpretation of content or policy changes.' Some game studios said that a character that was supposed to be approved by the interpretation that 'I am wearing a swimsuit' was later canceled as 'sexual underwear'. .. Another developer said that there was a case where the in-game code that was supposed to be approved by Apple once was judged to be a violation of the guidelines by another operator and had to be deleted. Although Apple prohibits ' explicitly sexually or obscene content ' on the App Store guidelines, its interpretation is vague and there are cases in which Apple interprets it in its own advantage. It has been done.

In addition, a development team confirmed to Apple several times how to make money on the game before release, and even after obtaining approval, it seems that the app was blocked a few weeks after the release. .. 'Apple is like a sheriff, we are free to interpret the guidelines for our own benefit,' said Hirabayashi, a game consultant based in Tokyo.

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in Mobile,   Software,   Game, Posted by logu_ii