A great summary of Apple's latest policy insanity from @FOSSpatents: https://t.co/0QgqbDL7gK. It's quite shocking that, in the presence of antitrust lawsuits and greatly increased legislative and regulatory scrutiny, Apple's doubling down on brazen monopoly rent seeking.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) October 25, 2022
Apple will take 30% of all in-app NFT sales, according to new App Store guidance
Users can view NFTs on Apple’s platform, as long as they don’t unlock functionality in a game
Apple has updated guidelines for its apps which would now see the company take 30% of all NFT sales on its platform.
As spotted by Mobilegamer.biz, Apple’s new guidelines will allow NFTs to be sold, but only using in-app purchases, which would also require sellers to provide Apple with their 30% cut of the sale.
NFTs are unique non-interchangeable units of data stored on a decentralised ledger called a blockchain, which allows users to buy and sell digital assets such as in-game items or artwork.
The guidance reads “Apps may use in-app purchase to sell and sell services related to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), such as minting, listing, and transferring. Apps may allow users to view their own NFTs, provided that NFT ownership does not unlock features or functionality within the app.”
This essentially means that those who’ve purchased NFTs would be able to view them in an app, but if they were to unlock functionality within a game – such as a new character or costume – they would be subject to being classified as an in-app purchase, triggering Apple’s cut.
The rules also state: “Apps may allow users to browse NFT collections owned by others, provided that the apps may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.”
Epic‘s Tim Sweeney, who has long been at war with Apple, weighed in on the update calling it “brazen monopoly rent-seeking.”
According to the Game Developers Conference’s annual State of the Game Industry Report in January, which asked over 2,700 developers about their work, 70% of those surveyed said they had no interest in adding NFTs to their games.
Sales of NFTs dropped to a 12-month low in June amid a broader slowdown in the cryptocurrency market, which had fallen in worth from about $3 trillion in November 2021 to under $1 trillion.
