How Apple and Google's Shift to Direct-to-Consumer Sales Impacts Game Developers

The landscape of direct-to-consumer payments for mobile game developers is undergoing significant changes. Recent court rulings and regulatory actions in the EU and US have challenged Google and Apple's app store dominance, potentially ending the mandatory 30% revenue share on in-game purchases. Traditionally, game developers could sell in-game items through external webshops without additional fees, as long as they didn't embed payments within the game or direct players to external webshops. However, recent concessions from Apple and Google on embedded payments have come with high fees, prompting lawsuits from publishers like Epic and Spotify. Despite these challenges, direct-to-consumer sales remain a viable growth strategy for mobile game publishers, with successful examples like Warner Bros' Game of Thrones Conquest and Scopely's Marvel Strikeforce. To monetize mobile games with direct-to-consumer sales, developers must navigate complex global payment methods, currency localization, and sales tax/VAT compliance. This is where a direct-to-consumer payments specialist like FastSpring can help, providing a convenient and cost-effective solution. As a Merchant of Record payment provider, FastSpring assumes responsibility for processing payments and sales tax compliance worldwide, allowing game developers to focus on creating great games. With almost two decades of experience, FastSpring offers a comprehensive service that seamlessly integrates payments, facilitates global sales tax and VAT compliance, and provides robust fraud prevention. According to David Nachman, CEO of FastSpring, the company is uniquely positioned to support video game publishers in their direct-to-consumer endeavors. FastSpring's all-in-one payments platform and Merchant of Record model offer many benefits, including lower costs than marketplaces and the ability to expand into new markets. For game publishers already selling directly to players, FastSpring can still provide support, enabling studios to leverage its high approval rates, failover options, and global payments coverage. While FastSpring is committed to helping game developers with direct-to-consumer strategies, the company also supports the fight for open commerce in mobile, advocating for consumer choice and developer freedoms. Nachman believes that the recent app store term changes, which include a 28% fee for transactions outside the app and limited ability to load apps outside the app stores, are insufficient and will likely lead to further lawsuits and changes in app store terms and conditions.