After Court’s Apple App Store Ruling, All Eyes on How Gamers Respond

Friday’s federal court ruling on Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple opens the door to app developers of all kinds to pitch alternative payment options, getting around Apple’s 30% App Store fee. Whether it has any practical impact on Apple’s bottom line, though, comes down to a single question: Will gamers be willing to exit their game to buy digital goods through a website?

That’s far from clear. “You have to leave the game, go someplace else, buy the item and somehow figure out how to get the item into the game,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter about the ruling. Still, he said, the ruling will “have a massive impact if it gets implemented.” But it would take time for gaming firms to modify their technology to take advantage of the new rules.