Apple recently lost in court to Epic Games over bringing Fortnite to the iTunes App Store in the United States of America (USA). This distinction needs to be made considering Apple already lost similar cases in the European Union (EU) and they are different markets but set a standard of operation. This loss could mean a lot of lost revenue for Apple as they cannot force Epic to pay the traditional 30% “Apple Tax” as it is referred to. This win for Epic also opens up iTunes for other developers to follow suit with their own methods of charging fans for In-App Purchases(IAP). It doesn’t stop there, Apple could go on the offensive and start spending money to make money, starting with the Unity Game Engine. Arguably the biggest competitor to Epics Unreal Engine.
Laying the Groundwork
Apple has always been about gaming on their iOS platform. Something they severely failed at with their Macintosh computers. Seemingly, Steve Jobs was focused on not making that mistake again, launching the App Store with a few games. Fast forward and Apple have been able to exert massive control over how mobile games are not only sold but created no matter the platform they released on – iOS was always in the back of the mind of developers/publishers.
Unity has been positioning themselves as a one stop shop for game creation. No matter if your focus was computers, consoles or mobile platforms, Unity makes it quite easy to get up and running with a product. Unreal Engine covers these platforms too as well as offering their own asset store, and of course integration with Epic Game Store (something Unity doesn’t have, yet).
Currently, Unity only offers assets for creating apps and such, finished games are not sold officially in their online store. Yet.
Like a Puzzle Piece
If Apple were to purchase Unity, worth approximately $9.88 billion the two companies would definitely compliment each other. It would give Apple direct access to a game engine that is capable of running across many platforms, theoretically expanding their Apple TV offerings, and it would give Unity access to people that know how to create a profitable online store.
While this would be expensive for Apple, it would be a future safeguarding purchase to say the least. They would be able to collect whatever fee, say they kept it at 30% same as iTunes, on all asset purchases through the Unity Store, no matter what platform it was purchased on. Also, releasing the game/app on an Apple platform would result in another 30% fee gained.
This would also open Apple to earning on platforms they do not even own from Nintendo to Sony to PC. In one way or another, Apple could gain from purchasing Unity.
Even more if Apple were able to repair some of the damage that former Unity CEO did about a year ago.
What do you think, will Apple purchase Unity? Honestly, I am surprised they have not done something like already considering their expansion to markets outside of just technology hardware.