Why Apple ejected the Steam Link app from the App Store

 
The game buying feature built into Steam would annoy Apple and therefore be the cause of this withdrawal.

Just arrived, barely ejected: Valve's local Steam Link video game streaming app will not have lasted long in the App Store. Launched in beta version on Android and iOS, the Valve app allows you to play on your smartphone at home through a video stream entirely calculated by a PC connected to the local network. Or how to enjoy its PC catalog and its GeForce 1080 quietly installed in bed!

Except that Apple has reversed its decision: in a tweet, Valve said that not only his app was removed while "many applications in the App Store [have] the same kind of features", but that 'In addition Valve lost on appeal this withdrawal,' thus prohibiting its release on iOS '. What to highlight the terrible power of Apple software publishers.

Apple wants to protect his big cake

But for Apple, Steam Link is far from being a simple game broadcasting tool on a local network. To understand this, you should know that the sale of software brings a lot to Apple: the company announced that iOS developers had shared $ 26.5 billion in 2017, which is $ 11.35 billion for Apple, which gets 30% commission on the sale of apps ... and 49% of the revenues of the App Store come from the sale of video games.
 
However, opposite, Steam offers the same kind of business model: if Valve develops a few titles (we are still waiting for Half Life 3 ...), the reality is the business of the company revolves around its client Steam who distributes him also games and on which Valve takes (him too) a commission of 30%.

There is therefore a possible competition between the two game distributors that are Apple and Valve, even if the reality of uses that the Steam Link is above all a way to play on your smartphone using the power of his computer. The act of purchase, if it is possible in Big Picture mode, remains easier and faster on your PC. In addition, it is not an app itself, but the video stream of a program running on the computer. Only exit for Valve? Launch an iOS client bridled against the Android client, in which the act of purchase is impossible.