Xbox, Spotify leaders blast Apple for App Store changes. 

Fortnite is coming back to iOS for iPhone users in the EU. However, the game's creator, along with other tech companies and app developers, are blasting Apple for policy changes based on the EU-law that facilitated Fortnite's return in the first place. As Mashable previously reported, a new EU law called the Digital Markets Act (DMA) has basically forced Apple's hand in allowing alternative application marketplaces to distribute apps to the iPhone.

A new fee structure from Apple

Apple is giving developers a choice, if one can really call it that.App developers can decide to stick with the status quo and distribute their apps through the App Store and under the current terms, which see Apple taking as much as 30 percent of the revenue cut.
If developers go with this model, everything continues as is for those developers.
However, if developers would like to take advantage of the DMA forcing Apple to open up to alternative marketplaces, things can drastically change for them…and not all for the better.


Perhaps the most significant change is the introduction of a Core Technology Fee (CTF) for any app released by a developer that agrees to these new terms. Basically, Apple is rolling out a fee for developers for user installs. Once an app receives more than one million installs, Apple will begin charging a developer a €0.50 first annual install fee per user. That fee allows a user to download an app as many times as they want on their devices and install as many updates as needed within a 12-month period. At the end of that year, Apple would once again charge the developer a fee for an install from that user, if the app has more than one million total installs.


The CTF is applied to all apps, free or paid, and regardless of whether they are distributed through Apple's App Store or an alternative marketplace. That is, unless the developer decided to stay with the current status quo agreement with Apple.