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Comment by lozenge | Hacker News Reader

Yes but there's no reason to use another browser today, because the browsers aren't able to add differentiating features.

I don't think you are correct to assume games can't go to the web. Any feature they need from native APIs can be added to the web. Full screen, gyro, vibration, multi touch, payment APIs, notifications, WASM and GPU support are already on the web!

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Then why aren’t profitable games based on web technology on Android if it is just Apple holding it back?

But it’s not about the technology even then. Games make money via in app purchases by whales. In app purchasing is easy and they are able to tap into kids spending money. Most parents aren’t going to put their credit cards on kids phones. They will let kids do in app purchases with parental controls that are available on the App Store.

Considering Apple isn't even a go-to choice for gamers, the idea that iOS's minority market-share is holding back Windows, Android (and even macOS), is nothing short of farcical b/s-ing.

Heck, most developers don't even produce versions of their games for any Apple hardware, even though there are plenty of cross-platform development suites.

I think you are misinterpreting what “games” are. Mobile gaming and in app purchases of loot boxes and other pay to win mechanics are a much bigger market than console or PC games.

Though Apple’s current level of web app support is sufficient to build those kinds of titles as web apps, but we aren’t seeing a web app gold rush, and even if there was zero web app support - why not develop one anyway so Android, Windows, Linux and Mac have a shared web app, instead of 4+ separate binaries.

Because HN users won’t admit that it isn’t Apple holding back PWAs - it’s the technology, the business use case, and the fact that the majority of Android phones out in the wild are too underpowered.

Web browsers aren't supposed to have differentiating features. There's a web standard that everyone's supposed to agree on and implement.

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