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JWeinCom on 07 August 2020
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padib said:
JWeinCom said:

I have to write an article about some aspect of entertainment for a law journal, so it could be interesting topic.

Based on my (VERY limited) knowledge, it would depend on leverage. Microsoft and Google are huge companies, and have enough strength that Apple can't essentially dictate whatever terms they want. They still have real competition in the market, based on the existence of PC/Steam/Android/Switch/Sony, so it'd be a little hard to make an anti-trust claim.

Could definitely be interesting.

However, in this case Microsoft and Google are direct competitors to Apple for streaming game services. The others not so much. Since the apps being blocked are purely streaming service, on that aspect alone it could be anti-trust and a means to block competition. We know what happened to Microsoft when they played foul with Netscape, I'm surprised that this kind of thing isn't being taken seriously nowadays.

And, if the courts are not taking care of it, at least people should be bothered by it. In the days of Netscape, Microsoft was public enemy #1 for its behavior. Today people seem complacent with this kind of monopolistic practice, I think it's a bad sign.

Really depends. Does apple have a similar competing service? Apple Arcade is sort of a competitor but not really. To what extend do these services need to be playable on IOS to succeed? I don't think it's vital. And would the task of submitting games individually for Apple's review pose a huge barrier?

In a nutshell, anti-trust laws kick in when one player has so much power that others have to agree to whatever demands they make. I really don't think that's quite the case here.