I understand Apple's stance against Epic, but I read their reasoning for not allowing cloud gaming services and....yea, I'm just not seeing what their beef is. What's the difference between allowing movie streaming services like Netflix and game streaming? It's just media.
Because even with Apple TV+, Netflix is not a competitor and poses zero threat to any of Apple's big 3; phones, tablets, and computers.
Microsoft on the other hand is literally Apple's oldest and most formidable rival. While Surface is not on the same level as iDevices, the Surface brand and line of products still exist. Apple will do everything in their power to either get a sizeable cut from xCloud or stop xCloud completely from iOS. They have -- whether we like it or not -- every reason to look at Microsoft as a threat and not some lifelong pal that just oddly tries to establish a monopoly everywhere he goes. That Good Guy Phil™ shit doesn't work on Apple.
Nevermind setting legal precedent (i.e. saying yes to xCloud makes it near impossible to [legally] block any other gaming service on their platform), nevermind the history of iPod vs Zune and the history of iTunes on Windows, nevermind the fuckery of Apple's suite of office apps vs Microsoft Office, and nevermind the fact that the guy that started Apple never liked Microsoft. Microsoft have been making some pretty big strides towards becoming a software behemoth in gaming. Should they succeed, they could potentially end up being the biggest videogame software publisher in the world. What that means for Apple is they could find themselves in a PC vs Mac software situation, only this time, it's Surface vs iDevices wherein Apple can't get the biggest content in gaming and or the only way to get the content is to pay for it because
one company holds the keys to the biggest stuff around. Think about the implication(s) of all iOS and Mac platforms being starved of thousands of pieces of software.
So for as silly and assbackwards as it seems for Apple to not allow xCloud, they (Apple) are well within reason to not want to find themselves in a situation where
they have to pay for gaming content to show up on their platform. There's rumors of Apple working on their own streaming shit and that stuff could be true. But the core of Apple throwing up both middle fingers at Microsoft is that they (Apple) know first hand how relentless Microsoft is and as a result, they will do everything within their power to not create another situation where Microsoft corners an entire software market.
