Please have the option buing the game directly from the publisher

cosmicvoyager

Greetings,

Please have the option buing the game directly from the publisher. I do not like buying from Apple's store because of their ridulous unethical 30% cut.

Thanks

ST4TICStriker

Hmmmm.........Would Apple even allow that?

bigdogchris

I think the reason they are going App store on Mac is for visibility. Why not offer on both App store and directly, I don't know, but there may be a clause in the contract saying you can't offer directly if you sell on App store.

oldsch00l

ST4TICStriker said:

Hmmmm.........Would Apple even allow that?

For OS X there's no obligation (yet :-/ ) to sell via the MacAppStore.

bigdogchris said:

I think the reason they are going App store on Mac is for visibility. Why not offer on both App store and directly, I don't know, but there may be a clause in the contract saying you can't offer directly if you sell on App store.

Not sure about that, there are software sold on and off the MacAppStore already. But I don't know if there's no general rule preventing that or if it's negotiated with every partner. I could definitely see them allowing that for major softwares (AppStore credibility) and not for other softwares where they want to have exclusivity...

Risingsun

The Mac App Store is just another store in terms of software sales. You can sell it on the Mac App Store or sell it from another retailer or from your own store. There are several games, like Grant Theft Auto for example, that is sold directly from Rockstar, on Steam for mac and pc, and from the Mac App Store.

The only real difference is that Steam has its own set of rules to sell through their store and the Mac App Store also has its own set of rules, just like most retailers online and off.

The reason BGEE is exclusive to the MAS, has more to do with Beamndogs contract with the rights holders of Baldur's Gate than with any rules apple has in place.

Oh and @cosmicvoyager
I would hardly call taking a 30% cut unethical, Steam has a similar if not the exact same percentage cut. Feral Interactive, the Mac Porting house who does business with several retailers had this to say about it when asked a similar question recently.

" All stores in the world (apart from some non profits) from your local store to Wallmart have some sort of commission system it is how every store works including Apple."

And like someone mentioned above, the Mac App Store has great visibility. Unlike Steam where a user has to already know they want to install steam, to the website and download the client and then look for their games, The Mac App Store is pre-installed on all new Macs sold. For a lot of more casual gamers, have a store on your task bar tied into your Apple ID and itunes credit is pretty convenient and there is a lot of discovery from people going on the store checking for updates or a productivity or twitter app.

The store certainly has its problems, but Beamdog had its reasons and 30% is the norm, even on the new Windows App store in Windows 8 (20% in certain situations).