I understand your point, but I don’t think that argument can be defended in court. Because Apple creates the hardware that iOS apps run on, they have the right to determine what other software does or does not run on their device.

This is similar to systems in console gaming. For example, Nintendo has 100% market share…

This is true. Additionally, Apple has exclusive control over the hardware their App Store works on. Microsoft had a near monopoly on OS sales, but they didn’t make any of the internal hardware their operating systems ran out, and this no claim to control what applications a given PC could run.

A platform isn’t a market. Microsoft has exclusive rights to decide what games will play on their Xbox platform, but ONLY that platform. This doesn’t give Microsoft a monopoly over the console video game industry. That’s why you wouldn’t win a lawsuit against them because you want to play your PS4 copy of Grand Theft…

Yeah, I think the duopoly argument has more merit than either Apple or Google having an anti-competitive market position, but a lawsuit there would have to prove collusion between the two. If Apple and Google jointly decided to set an app sale charge at 30% in order to avoid competing with each other, that’s illegal…

Great analogy.

If that’s the case, and it may be, it’s a ridiculous miscalculation on the part of Epic. Apple is the most valuable company in the world, and the loss of Fortnite sales on their platform is going to look like a rounding error at the end of the year. They’re not buckling to anyone’s fan base, particularly if doing so…

This is particularly obvious when you consider they’ve been operating within the Apple Store ecosystem for years. They didn’t object to the terms of the deal when they were still establishing Fortnite as a brand; it’s only when they felt they had broad enough market saturation that they decided they wanted more money.

In the US, a monopoly itself is not illegal, if you come by it through legitimate means. When Apple first opened the App Store in 2008, they had a de facto monopoly over smart phone app development just because they were first to market.

There is no ‘fair’ in capitalism, just what the market is willing to pay. With tens of thousands of apps on the store and billions of dollars in annual sales, the market has been willing to pay 30%, including Epic up to this point.

How is he not doing this in Cleveland? Ohio is a legit battleground, Cleveland has the largest black population in the state and LeBron’s damn near royalty there - I’d think he could get this done at Progressive Field with a snap of his fingers.

Say one thing for athletes, at least there are useful metrics to gauge their performance. You might not think a guy who hits 30 home runs is worth a $20 million salary, but at least it’s verifiable he is responsible for all those homers. If a game gets stellar reviews that drive sales, how responsible is the CFO for…

And with Biden turning 80 in 2022, there’s a non-zero chance he resigns before his term is up, giving Harris the advantage of running as an incumbent with a year+ experience to her credit.

Picking Susan Rice would have meant hearing about Benghazi every day for the next three months, which means Hillary Clinton becomes a debate topic, and I imagine the Democrats want to avoid. Duckworth would be fantastic, but with Black Lives Matter at the forefront of national discussion, I’m guessing Harris’ heritage…

Seconded. There are a zillion joints between Chicago and Pittsburgh making exactly this kind of pizza.

Yep. I just wrote a post about it, but this pizza is simply not unique to Chicago. I grew up in Ohio and local shops have been serving this kind of pizza since at least the 1950s.

The weird thing here is that there’s just nothing about this pizza that seems unique to Chicago. I grew up in the middle of Ohio and you can get pizza almost indistinguishable from this everywhere. There’s a chain called Donatos that has hundreds of locations all over Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, with shops popping up…

I don’t think there would have been any blowback with the studio at all if he’d just said Sony paid for it and this is the way they want it. I mean, it sucks, but the reason why is obvious. This kind of mealy-mouthed politican bullshit comes across way worse than being direct about it.

The Sakai clan armor you get midway through the game gets you additional stand-off attacks.

And here I was, excited that an open-world combat game was even trying something as novel as build-your-own poetry...

It’s not speculation any longer, Taco Bell gave the complete rundown in a press release. It’s a massacre:

WHAT WE’RE SAYING GOODBYE TO: