Redaction errors reveal the economics of exclusivity | Opinion

Fortnite, on the other hand, like most games, is selling purely virtual goods that have zero marginal cost; a costume or emote are bits in a database. Epic may be right that Apple’s 30% take is higher than it would be if the App Store had competition, but ultimately the cost of Fortnite’s V-Bucks is a completely arbitrary one (that is why, for exam... See more

Nintendo continues to find success—last year, during the pandemic, Animal Crossing broke Nintendo’s first-year sales record with 31 million copies sold. Today, Nintendo is the 3rd-largest gaming company in the world, behind Sony and Tencent, with $12 billion in revenue.

Gaming is a hits-driven business, where the biggest productions cost hundreds of millions of dollars and need to find a way to recoup their sizable investments. As a result, the companies behind these massive games look for as many ways as possible to mitigate risk, either by copying popular trends (like the battle royale craze of the late 2010s) o... See more