Purnima Kochikar, vice president of partnerships at Google Play, said the deal was approved and submitted to Epic, but not accepted.

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Epic will receive the money in phases under the three-year “incremental funding” plan, which runs through 2021. The agreement is designed to prevent popular apps from bypassing Google’s cut.

In fact, Epic made the Android version of Fortnite available directly through its official website in 2018, bypassing the Play Store and eliminating the need to pay Google the Play Store commission. In an antitrust lawsuit filed later in 2020, Epic said the decision briefly sent Google into panic.

Citing internal documents, it said Google was concerned that this approach could have “contagion risks,” meaning other game developers (including Blizzard, Valve, Sony, and Nintendo) would follow Epic’s lead.

Epic also claims that Google tried to prevent this from happening by offering special benefits or even acquiring Epic.

Lawrence Koh, the departed head of Google Play games business development, testified in court on Tuesday that these “contagious” documents were submitted to the court.

Google believes that almost all leading game developers are considering withdrawing from the Play Store after seeing Epic’s move, which may cause Google to lose billions of dollars in revenue.

Court documents predict that if “Fortnite” leads to a subsequent large-scale “evacuation”, it may cause Google to suffer a direct revenue loss of 130 to 250 million US dollars. There may also be indirect losses of up to US$3.6 billion.

Google said it was just concerned about the loss of games on the Play Store and had no malicious intent. “We just want developers to choose Play,” Koh said. “We think getting games on the service is a worthwhile investment.”

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According to industry insiders, Samsung Research Institute has begun to launch “Game Task Forces (TF)” in four countries including South Korea, the United Kingdom, China, and Ukraine.

It is reported that Samsung Research Institute is a cutting-edge technology research and development (R&D) organization of Samsung Electronics’ Device Experience (DX) department, aiming to explore future growth potential. Therefore, Samsung Electronics chose countries with developed gaming industries as the location for TF operations.

Sources mentioned that TF is working with American Epic Games, Krafton (formerly known as Blue Hole, the developer of “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds”), NCSoft (South Korea’s second largest game company), Nexon (South Korea’s largest game company) Company), Smilegate, Kakao Games and Pearl Abyss have collaborated to develop games specifically for foldable phones such as the Galaxy Z Fold and Flip 5.

Samsung Electronics also has a “hotline” with these game companies. In addition to jointly developing new games, it is also working hard to optimize existing popular games.

Analysts predict that Samsung Electronics will maximize its differentiation from Chinese rivals by launching games optimized for Galaxy foldable phones.

Market research firm Trend Force expects foldable phone shipments to account for just 1.6% of all smartphones in the global market this year.

Samsung Electronics believes that only when a large amount of content (such as games) dedicated to foldable phones appears, user purchase demand will increase significantly and the market will grow rapidly. They believe that games can better highlight the advantages of foldable devices.

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Geekwills is an online shop that connects consumers with millions of products and brands around the world with the mission to empower them to live their best lives. Geekwills is committed to offering the most affordable quality products to enable consumers and sellers to fulfill their dreams in an inclusive environment.

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Epic has partnered with the International Age Rating Alliance (IARC) to launch a new system that will apply to all first- and third-party playable content starting November 14, 2023.

According to reports, to obtain an age rating, creators need to fill out the IARC content rating questionnaire, which will then be reviewed by Epic. After that, they can obtain ratings from IARC participating rating agencies, including ESRB (North America), PEGI (Europe) and ACB (Australia). Region-specific ratings, ranging from E to the highest Teen rating.

The IARC questionnaire will be available on the Creator Portal starting October 16th. Any islands that have not been rated before November 14th will be cleared. Epic says the IARC-assigned rating (from E to Teen) will be highlighted before entering the island.

Additionally, once the new ratings go live, new parental control options will allow users to set content age-rating restrictions, blocking access to islands above certain classifications.

The post Fortnite player-customized game content will have mandatory age ratings appeared first on TechGoing.

However, this also means that Apple can also file a new lawsuit against the final judgment of the two previous lawsuits. Apple has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling requiring the company to make changes to its App Store.

According to Reuters, Apple argued in its latest filing that the 2021 lower court order “ignores constitutional limits on the power of federal courts” because it targeted only one developer rather than a broader group.

The Apple filing continued: “Unless this court amends, the ruling would make general injunctions the default remedy in single-plaintiff cases challenging generally applicable policies.”

The post After Epic Files New Appeal, Apple Follows With Request to Dismiss Old Ruling appeared first on TechGoing.

In this lawsuit, both parties got a measure of victory, but Epic is taking things a bit further. By pushing this case forward, Epic is trying to push Apple to permit third-party in-app purchasing systems. But with the new Epic and Apple court hearing, the United States Department of Justice is requesting to play a role in the court hearing.

Read also: PICO XR will announce their new VR product on September 22.

According to the United State Department of Justice, the initial hearing of this case was marred by misinterpretation of the US antitrust law. In the brief from the United State Department of Justice, they say that their role, in this case, will have a certain impact on its outcome. The previous misinterpretation of the US antitrust law has hurt antitrust enforcement on all levels.

The Epic and Apple court hearing will take place next month and the outcome will determine the payment options in the Fortnite application. If it goes in the favour of Epic then users of its Fortnite application will have multiple payment options. We will wait for the outcome of this court hearing taking into consideration the role the United State Department of Justice will play.

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There are many improvements this update promises to come with, but let’s take a look at just a few of them. One of such upgrades or optimization is with the refresh rate of games that come from Unreal Engines pipelines. Another big change will bring a better experience for the Unreal Engine editor on Apple Silicon.

Read also: Logitech G and Tencent Games partnership will bring advancements to the cloud handheld gaming industry.

From our findings, we understand that this update will also add a “PSO automatic collection function.” By introducing this function, developers will now be able to wave goodbye to the platform’s persisting stuttering problem. This addition will only benefit games from the Unreal Engine 5’s pipelines, other games from the UE4’s pipeline will miss out on this. 

There will also be some improvements to the blueprints of games while in the development stage. The Nanite system in the coming Unreal Engine 5.1 will see some improvements against the already existing version. The release date of this system for game developers is not yet official. But, we will update you on this issue once we get an official statement from Epic.

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