Facebook first unveiled its fresh rebranding as “Meta” late last year with the parent company of the popular social network announcing its shifted focus towards the development of the “metaverse” while the online platform would continue to operate under the Facebook branding. A recent announcement from Meta earlier this week introduced the idea of the company allowing creators to monetize their products within the metaverse, though with a hefty buy-in for those creators. Now, Apple’s Senior Director of Corporate Communications Fred Sainz has come forward with some scathing criticism for the bold decision.
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In an email correspondence with MarketWatch, Sainz was heavily critical of the commission fee Meta would be charging creators to sell their products, calling the 47.5% kickback to Meta “hypocritical” as Facebook had previously criticized Apple for its 30% rates. He went on to accuse the company of taking advantage of the creators and small businesses that use the Meta platform through the high rates while simultaneously railing against Apple for its markedly lower rates. The announcement from Meta comes just months after CEO Mark Zuckerberg had railed against Apple’s commission fee, suggesting Meta would allow creators opportunities to earn more.
Apple’s harsh criticism comes as Apple had found itself similarly targeted for its platform’s fees in recent years with the most notable being the previously mentioned Fortnite. Fortnite was previously delisted from Apple’s App Store after Epic Games filed suit against the company for cracking down on Fortnite offering direct purchase of the game’s premium currency. While the United States District Court had ruled in favor of Fortnite being allowed to offer third-party options for purchasing in-game currency, Apple was still attempting to see the decision overturned as recently as October.
With its rebranding and shifted focus onto the metaverse, Meta has heavily shifted its focus in recent months onto the virtual space, particularly through virtual reality gaming. Meta had previously acquired premiere VR platform Oculus and recently renamed the popular Oculus Quest VR headset to the Meta Quest, with the company focusing on its own VR game/game creation engine called Horizon Worlds. While Meta’s decision to pivot heavily into the virtual reality space was met with controversy on announcement, its exorbitant commission rates will surely bring more attention to the platform, be it positive or negative.
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Source: IGN
