Google gives you an App Store and maintain the OS that other hardware vendors (and sometimes themselves) implement hardware around. They take a 30% cut for distribution in their special app store and not much else.
Microsoft and Sony take similar cuts for access to their game consoles. In return they provide:
- High quality, robust developer APIs.
- High quality debuggers, graphics debuggers and CPU+GPU profiling tools with in-depth access to hardware counters
- Networking libraries for matchmaking, and a network backend for tunneling network traffic via their online services
- True development kit hardware with expanded resources for debugging tools
- High quality documentation and direct support
- GPU drivers that actually work
- Payment processing
- All for a hardware platform that is typically sold at or below BOM cost for the initial launch of the device
Google provides distribution via the Play Store, and only for about ~4GB of app before they force you to use your own CDN because they have a limit on the size of the app bundle they'll distribute. There's likely things I'm not aware of that Google provides for app developers rather than game developers, but if we're comparing to game consoles then I'm going to compare tool for tool.
Apple's tooling is better, largely because they have way more control over the target hardware and software environment, but they take an additional cost via their highly restrictive app guidelines.
The contrast is stark compared to another of Google's own projects: Stadia.
Much of this comes second hand as I wasn't on this particular team when they were working on Stadia bring-up for proprietary AAA engine (I joined about 2 weeks before Stadia was officially canned).
But the quality of support from Stadia for developers was leagues above what you get from Android. Every few weeks I'll hear from other team members how good it was working with Google for Stadia. The tooling was great. We got developer kit hardware. We had documentation and direct support channels and Google was actively managing outreach and development on tooling to ease transitioning into their systems (Google was one of the biggest driving forces behind DXC's SPIR-V target).
Compare this against the same people commenting on the Android experience and it's the complete opposite. We're left out to dry with poor support while trying to target devices that barely work.
What's the difference? Google actually had to fight to get us to come to their store. They had competition and weren't acting as a toll collector to a captive market. Game developers had the choice to tell Google to kick rocks, Xbox and PlayStation aren't going anywhere. Google had no choice but to play ball with good support and fair pricing. No such pressure exists on Mobile, and they crank the toll as a result.
For the difference between mobile and consoles, it depends on if you have publisher or port team backing or not. Many indie developers do not get devkits, do not get proper access to Nintendo Switch Online, PlayStation Network, or Xbox Live networking, do not get performance monitoring tools, and do not get any documentation or support. For them the most that happens is they export the necessary files in a reviewable archive format and send it in for approval, hoping that the game engine they chose to use properly functions on the given console and that there won't be any major problems that will cause them to go through the review process again. This also applies to any major updates or patches later on. The consoles treat these indie developers the same way Steam, Itch.io, and GOG treat their developers -- as vendors in a storefront, not as equal business partners vital to the operations of the platform. For these indie devs if you want the above features you have to hire somebody to do the porting for you or you have to go through a lengthy and expensive process to be approved to use them. Most console releases of well known indie games like Celeste, Shovel Knight, and Rimworld are handled by port teams for this very reason. On console, if you're below the AA tier you're paying for the cost of the privileges others get instead of you.
However with mobile storefronts at the start everybody gets treated equally since they all have access to the same limited number of features and get the same level of (some would say neglectful) automated support. For the most part Epic Games goes through the same process of uploading a game or program and waiting for approval that Jimbob does. It's only afterwards that the level of access changes. It's this way by design. Not only because early on there were no big names in the mobile space and so no real tier system was necessary, but also because quantity is valued over quality. There are about a thousand uploads to Google Play a week (I haven't found strict data on how many are only games, but the process is the same for games and apps so it doesn't really matter), versus between twenty to thirty on PlayStation and Xbox. Creating unique avenues and methods would bottleneck things horrifically for mobile. As a developer you get an informal discount for the relative lack of quality control and increased competition you'll be facing.
This cost is very evident in the prices of the games. You won't ever see games that aren't asset flips or shovelware below a non-sale price of $1.99 on Xbox Games Store, but you'll see plenty of $0.79 games on Google Play and Steam.
Microsoft and Sony take similar cuts for access to their game consoles. In return they provide: - High quality, robust developer APIs. - High quality debuggers, graphics debuggers and CPU+GPU profiling tools with in-depth access to hardware counters - Networking libraries for matchmaking, and a network backend for tunneling network traffic via their online services - True development kit hardware with expanded resources for debugging tools - High quality documentation and direct support - GPU drivers that actually work - Payment processing - All for a hardware platform that is typically sold at or below BOM cost for the initial launch of the device
Google provides distribution via the Play Store, and only for about ~4GB of app before they force you to use your own CDN because they have a limit on the size of the app bundle they'll distribute. There's likely things I'm not aware of that Google provides for app developers rather than game developers, but if we're comparing to game consoles then I'm going to compare tool for tool.
Apple's tooling is better, largely because they have way more control over the target hardware and software environment, but they take an additional cost via their highly restrictive app guidelines.