[passivate]

So far he has lost a ton of cash on lawyer fees, M&A costs, etc. And EPIC now has to individually manage the acquired companies, make sure they're not competing against each other in the same market, etc, etc. I don't think this type of "spending current money to save future money" works. I don't care which company is doing it, but someone needs to break the App Store toll-booth.

Apple/Google/Anyone else trying to limit general purpose computing on mobile/PC platforms is a terrible thing for computing, but thats just my view. The ideal situation is we have a default app store - where the system integrator enforces all their policies, but then a user can voluntarily choose to download a separate app store where that store is run by different less exploitative policies. To make it easy for users, you can have an central store-front which then re-directs users to the different store pages. No different than a "Nike store" on Amazon.

[echelon]

> And EPIC now has to individually manage the acquired companies, make sure they're not competing against each other

Tim Sweeney is buying creator marketplaces. The Github in each market: 3D (sketchup/artstation), 2D (artstation), music (bandcamp), etc. It's the Microsoft play, but for creatives.

He's trying to leapfrog the gaming industry and build a content creation engine that encompasses Hollywood, marketing, architecture, automotive, you name it. He's actively cultivating skilled creator mindshare and winning.

He's also trying to set legal precedent that siloed distribution marketplaces can't charge an arm and a leg and enforce draconian rules, because his play is a two sided multi-channel marketplace where he wins regardless of where you buy or sell.

The endgame for Tim is huge if it works.

[chucky_z]

The thing that sucks for me is that while I fundamentally agree with everything Tim is doing, he has got to get some better PR because I am so tired of this. I am tired of Tim Sweeney and Epic this multi billion dollar company going “boohoo I’m so bullied,” like, shut up and just do the thing without trying to smear anyone and everyone who isn’t yourself.

[fabianhjr]

At least in Android it is already the case, I have installed both F-Droid and Huawei's AppGallery in an otherwise stock android. (And prefer to get as much as possible from F-Droid)

Apple on the other hand has a war against "evil" sideloading. :P

[anonymousab]

> At least in Android it is already the case

There are roadblocks and deficiencies though, a major one being that sideloaded app stores cannot automatically update their applications, making them permanently inferior and crippled compared to Google's offering.

[IshKebab]

They're actually fixing that finally (I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with Epic's lawsuits...)

[newaccount74]

Also, some apps from F-Droid are crippled compared to what they can do when downloading from Play Store, eg. the K9 mail app from F-Droid doesn't have support for push email, it can only check at intervals.

I don't know what the reason for this is, but the result is that Android is not a truly "open" platform.

[mkhpalm]

At this point I feel its fairly obvious that only real solution is a completely new mobile OS.