On May 30, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found Apple in wilful violation of a 2021 injunction ordering significant changes to its App Store policies. Now, in short: App publishers can link players directly to web shops from inside the app.

The Workaround Era: 2021-2025

Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store take a 30% cut of IAP revenue. Epic famously challenged this cut, eventually filing a lawsuit in 2020, after Fortnite implemented Epic’s own payments into the game and was subsequently removed from the App Store. In a September 2021 ruling, Apple largely prevailed. However, the court did mandate Apple allow in-app links to external payment solutions.

As a result, from 2021 up until now, developers technically could use external payment systems, but only under tightly constrained conditions. Apple’s guidelines did not allow direct links or in-app promotional messaging around external purchases. Furthermore, Apple's introduction of a 27% commission on off-app purchases made external payments economically unviable.

This spurred an arms race of creative workarounds. Considering that payment provider commissions are often 3%-7% compared to Apple’s 30%, the incentive was clear. Some developers built companion portals that doubled as news hubs or loyalty platforms to funnel users toward web-based purchases. Monopoly Go’s Tycoon Club is one of the most well-known examples. Other developers leaned into ad networks and retargeting campaigns or sneaky in-game pop-ups tucked away far enough to escape App Store reviewer attention.

What Just Changed?

The new ruling strips Apple of many of its most effective "friction maximization" tools:

• Apple cannot charge fees on external purchases.
• Apple cannot limit developer-user communications about payments.
• Apple cannot use scary full-screen warnings — any messaging needs to be neutral.
• Apple cannot block dynamic URLs (meaning users stay logged in during transitions).

Practically, this means developers can now place a simple, frictionless web shop link inside their game. No loyalty club detours or retargeting gymnastics.

In the status quo, external payment benchmarks have hovered around 20%–30% of gross mobile game revenue for the savviest teams. Now, some experts suggest 50% is in reach even with relatively small investments into the payment flows.

Apple was quick to say it will comply, but appeal. The market didn’t wait.

Spotify was first out the gate: On May 1st, its new flow launched, sending users to a browser-based checkout. Epic Games, as expected, didn’t waste any time either. It announced a 0% store fee in the Epic Games Store for the first $1M and announced its own web shop, aiming to challenge incumbents such as Xsolla and Stash. Stripe quickly joined the action, releasing a tailor-made in-app-to-web flow.

Stripe isn’t the only payment provider eager to capitalize — this is turning into a full-blown race. The big question now is how soon we’ll see in-app webview implementations to streamline the experience even further. Many of these new flows might even use Apple Pay, just not through Apple’s native in-app purchase system.

Implications for Game Publishers

Publishers now face a critical window of opportunity. Typically, the largest barrier to external payment adoption is securing that initial purchase. Once players overcome that hurdle, subsequent payments become much easier. With friction greatly reduced, developers have a strong incentive to quickly establish new payment habits before Apple’s potential appeals could reverse the landscape.

For larger publishers who already have web shops paired with loyalty programs or other value-added features, a dual approach makes sense: continue funneling players to their existing portals while leveraging the newly frictionless in-app pathways to external stores.

Beyond immediate profitability benefit, web shops and external payments have another key advantage: ownership of user data. As privacy measures weaken targeted advertising, establishing direct customer relationships via email sign-ins and loyalty programs is becoming increasingly important. Existing web shops and loyalty clubs will likely remain popular precisely because they maintain a direct line of communication between publishers and players.

Smaller publishers, however, might choose a wait-and-see strategy in the short term. External payment solutions could quickly become commoditised as best practices and leading platforms emerge in the coming weeks, making patience a reasonable option for companies with fewer resources.

However, once external payments reach critical mass, opting out may no longer be viable. Publishers who don't adapt risk falling behind in user acquisition, as competitors with lower store fees will inevitably have higher lifetime net revenues, allowing them to bid more aggressively.

Finally, the change in the business environment might not be as monumental as some pundits (and payment providers) make it to be. None of this necessarily grows the market as much as it is a squabble over take-rates that affects margins.

Why Apple Will Fight It

This ruling directly threatens one of Apple’s most profitable revenue streams: the App Store. To understand why Apple will fiercely defend this source, let’s quickly break down the numbers:

• Apple’s total revenue(FY 2024): $391B
• Apple Services revenue: $96.2B (about 25% of total revenue)
• Estimated App Store share of Services: approximately 40%, or $38.5B (9.8% of total revenue)
• Estimated U.S. App Store revenue: about 35% of total App Store revenue, approximately $13.5B
• Estimated gross margin: App Store revenue has an exceptionally high-margin — likely between 80% and 90%.

If we assume a 90% margin, U.S. App Store revenue alone generates around $12.2B in gross profit. Although this represents just 3% of Apple's total annual revenue, it accounts for nearly 7% of its total gross margin. Losing control of in-app payments isn't merely a revenue issue; it directly threatens Apple’s bottom line and profitability. Apple will leave no stone unturned in defending this profit stream.

The ruling currently sets Apple’s App Store fee on external payments at 0%, but it’s not certain this decision will remain unchanged during appeals. Judge Rogers seemed influenced by frustration over Apple's refusal to comply, leading to an especially harsh decision. Future judges reviewing the case might decide that completely removing Apple’s share isn't fair, since Apple still provides value to the ecosystem. Notably, Apple could’ve prevented this entire legal mess by being less aggressive with developers from the start.

Apple can appeal, delay, and hinder, but this still feels like a watershed moment. More than the EU’s DMA, this ruling signals a meaningful crack in the Apple-Google mobile duopoly. The walls are finally starting to come down.

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Selling direct means either building a host of complex global infrastructure on your own, or choosing among legacy providers whose inexperience in games, or questionable reputations, actually introduce risk to your businesses. 

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In Other News

💸 Funding & Acquisitions:

• Tripledot Studios acquires AppLovin’s mobile game business for $800M
• Griffin Gaming Partners leads $7M investment in Fuse Games
• Zugalu Entertainment acquires Crimson Herring Studios
• Classy Games Studios secures investment from Merak Capital
• Liftoff welcomes new investor as General Atlantic acquires minority stake
• NCsoft makes "strategic equity investment" in Empty Vessel

📊 Business & Products:

• Middle East fastest-growing market for game revenue and downloads in 2024
• CEO Andrew Wilson says EA “reignited” momentum for EA Sports FC in fiscal Q4
• Nintendo fiscal year sales drop 30% ahead of Switch 2 launch
• Roblox revenue jumps 29% to $1.04B during Q1 2025
• Apple appeals Epic ruling as industry hails “pivotal moment”

👾 Miscellaneous:

• PlayStation announces new studio focused on ‘immersive multiplayer worlds’
• GOAT Gaming unveils Amy, its first pro AI agent
• UK video game consumer spending hits £7.6B
• Microsoft announces a Gears of War remaster — and it’s coming to PlayStation, too
• New York Times Games launches leaderboard to celebrate daily wins

A Word from Our Sponsor: AWS FOR GAMES

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AWS for Games aligns purpose-built game  development capabilities – including AWS services, AWS solutions, and AWS Partners – against six solution areas to help developers build, run, and grow their games: Cloud Game Development, Game Servers, Live Operations, Game Analytics, Game Security, and AI & Machine Learning. 

These solutions simplify how you use AWS, making it easier to select the right tools for your desired use case. This reduces the time and investment required for game developers to adopt the cloud, leaving more time to innovate, and achieve faster time to value. AWS brings over 15 years of experience supporting transformation for game developers including Riot Games, Scopely, Second Dinner, Behaviour Interactive, and Nintendo. 

With hundreds of millions playing games built on AWS, thousands of AWS Partners, and teams of AWS Solutions Architects around the world, your game is in good hands within the AWS community.

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Hasbro and Lego(Ep. 22) (Gamecraft Podcast): “Mitch and Blake look at two of the largest toy companies in the world, Hasbro and Lego, and discuss their divergent but ultimately very successful forays into the games business as licensors of intellectual property. Your hosts discuss how both Hasbro and Lego tried to enter the games business directly as developers and publishers of digital games in the late 1990s, how they had very different experiences of success and failure, and how both decided to exit the business in the early 2000s only to return as licensors rather than publishers later in that decade.”

Portal's Kim Swift's Cake Is Not a Lie (The Fourth Curtain): “Our guest Kim Swift turned a student demo into the mega-hit Portal. Previously the Head of Creative for Xbox Games Publishing, she also did level design on Left 4 Dead and was Design Director for Star Wars: Battlefront II. We discuss how to pitch, owning IP on Mars and whether or not the cake is a lie.”

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