{"id":55185,"date":"2025-12-19T18:33:45","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T09:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=55185"},"modified":"2026-04-21T17:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:38:09","slug":"new-japanese-law-meant-to-ensure-fair-competition-for-mobile-game-developers-neutralized-by-apples-new-japan-specific-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/new-japanese-law-meant-to-ensure-fair-competition-for-mobile-game-developers-neutralized-by-apples-new-japan-specific-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"New Japanese law\u00a0meant to ensure\u00a0fair competition for mobile game developers gets neutralized\u00a0by Apple\u2019s new Japan-specific fees\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TimSweeneyEpic\/status\/2001494517996732598?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">posted&nbsp;on X<\/a>&nbsp;on December 18, criticizing changes Apple has&nbsp;locally&nbsp;introduced to the&nbsp;Japanese&nbsp;App Store in response to&nbsp;the country\u2019s&nbsp;new smartphone law. He condemned the&nbsp;changes as \u201ca travesty of obstruction and lawbreaking in gross disrespect to the government and people of Japan\u201d and announced that Fortnite will not be returning to the Japanese iOS store this year.&nbsp;Likewise, local developers in Japan are not impressed with the changes either.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Formally called the Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA),\u00a0the\u00a0new\u00a0Japanese\u00a0law\u00a0in question\u00a0is\u00a0meant to regulate the market dominance of major mobile OS\u00a0and app store\u00a0providers like Apple and\u00a0Google,\u00a0and\u00a0help prevent monopolistic practices.\u00a0For example, the providers will\u00a0be required\u00a0to open their OSs to third-party app stores.\u00a0This is especially impactful for mobile game developers\u00a0(and players)\u00a0in Japan, given that\u00a0Apple and Google charge up to 30% commission on in-app purchases made through the\u00a0App Store and Play\u00a0Store\u00a0respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sadly, Fortnite will not return to iOS in Japan in 2025 as promised. Apple was required to open up iOS to competing stores today, and instead of doing so honestly, they have launched another travesty of obstruction and lawbreaking in gross disrespect to the government and people\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7hu5eGMQX6\">pic.twitter.com\/7hu5eGMQX6<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TimSweeneyEpic\/status\/2001494517996732598?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 18, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>However,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/newsroom\/2025\/12\/apple-announces-changes-to-ios-in-japan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Apple has in response argued<\/a>&nbsp;that MSCA\u2019s requirements for alternative app stores and payment channels \u201copen new avenues for malware, fraud and scams, and privacy and security risks,\u201d and has thus implemented several&nbsp;local changes.&nbsp;This&nbsp;include&nbsp;new fees, such as a&nbsp;21% commission when developers use&nbsp;third-party in-app payments, and a 15% commission on transactions made via a website linked to by the developer.&nbsp;Sweeney refers to these as \u201cjunk fees.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TimSweeneyEpic\/status\/2001501862688641095?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">criticized<\/a>&nbsp;Apple\u2019s requirement that developers distributing apps or services outside the App Store must&nbsp;submit&nbsp;monthly reports detailing all transactions to Apple&nbsp;via&nbsp;a dedicated API, suggesting&nbsp;that&nbsp;this amounts to Apple&nbsp;surveilling&nbsp;every transaction at competing stores.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many Japanese developers were optimistic that MSCA coming into action would help relieve the financial burden of paying high fees&nbsp;to Apple and Google. This would also be beneficial for players, potentially lowering the prices of microtransaction. However, Apple\u2019s response to the new law seems&nbsp;to have&nbsp;complicated things in a brand-new way, diminishing the benefits of breaking away from the app store.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Japanese game producer Ukyo&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ukyoP_san\/status\/2001934857749041220?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shared the&nbsp;following view<\/a>&nbsp;on the&nbsp;new changes:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#eaeaea\"><em>&nbsp;\u201cAfter discussing things on the team,&nbsp;we\u2019ve&nbsp;concluded that for small-to-medium-sized businesses, there&#8217;s&nbsp;ultimately little&nbsp;benefit to breaking away from app stores.&nbsp;Our concerns are that customer support costs, initial development costs, and maintenance\/operational expenses&nbsp;are likely to increase&nbsp;compared to current levels.&nbsp;Also, since using external payment processors&nbsp;means paying transaction fees there too,&nbsp;you end up paying a 5% core technology fee plus several percent in external payment fees.&nbsp;We were like,&nbsp;is there really any advantage?&nbsp;It also simply seems like&nbsp;something that would increase&nbsp;the burden on players.\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given these circumstances, Ukyo considers it might be wise to wait for relevant laws to be refined and&nbsp;loopholes to be patched up in the country&nbsp;through court&nbsp;precedents&nbsp;and crackdowns by the&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;Fair Trade Commission.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japan&#8217;s Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA) has forced Apple to open its OS to third-party app stores, but the company has responded with rules that seemingly undercut the benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":55188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-55185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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