On the surface, American tech giant Apple and Chinese game developer MiHoYo appear to be closer than ever this year. In March this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook stopped at MiHoYo's studio during his visit to China. Six months later, at Apple’s press conference introducing the latest iPhone 15 series, two of MiHoYo’s games were also unveiled.
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Apple Online Store (China)
But behind the scenes, the two companies have been at loggerheads. According to thechinaproject, since August this year, miHoYo has tried twice to establish its own payment method in order to charge users without paying a commission to Apple, but both ended in failure.
For the first time, MiHoYo tried to guide users to purchase through the website through MiHoYo's official community forum "MiYouShe", but MiHoYo was soon removed from the shelves by Apple. The second time, MiHoYo launched a small program on Alipay to try to achieve this goal, but again, Apple asked MiHoYo to deactivate this feature.
Daniel Ahmad (aka ZhugeEx), director of research and insights at market research and consulting firm NikoPartners, explains: Infamously high commission rates – known as the infamous “Apple tax” – have long been a source of frustration for game developers and publishers around the world.
As miHoYo attempts to build its own payments system, the company joins a host of global companies that have been working together to promote in-game purchases outside of traditional app stores to boost gross profit margins.