BBC:
Apple is being sued by parents who claim the iPhone-maker is unfairly profiting from in-app payments in games aimed at children.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney notes that the mobile gaming industry is "largely broken," and blames the 30% tax levied by Apple and Google.
Man has been saying this for ages and knows full well the only thing he wants is more money at Apple and Google's expense and absolutely none of this will result in lower prices for the consumer.
He expects the digital equivalent of opening up his own store inside of a Walmart or Target. It's absurd.
And he feels absolutely entitled to it, in a too-big-to-fail sense - because Unreal Engine is used by so many developers, banning Epic would hurt those developers relying on their tech, which would be super unfair to the developers.
Thank goodness you are there to defend the small guys Google and Apple. You're so brave, Christopher!
Yeah, I'm totally defending Apple and Google and not explaining how another company is just as greedy. That's the big takeaway from my comment, Apple and Google good, only Epic bad. Yup. I totally didn't make it about the fact that this man just wants more money and isn't doing it for the consumers. Nope. Not that at all. I'm just praising up Big Tech. They're my one and only love in life. Please recognize me Big Tech Senpai!
The epic games store charges a 12% tax and has been losing money for 5 years...that sounds dysfunctional.
It's a play to attempt to win over the market so they can then realign pricing with what Steam has in the long run. The problem is they are doing only that and not actually building a better software supported platform on PC. Essentially, they're throwing money at the problem, not actually trying to compete by providing better service.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney revealed that they have spent $1 billion fighting Apple and Google but adds it's a "smam price" to pay for freedom.
Fortnite on the Google Play Store would've generated over $1 billion in percentage fees for Google. Smart move.
I buy most my pc games through epic now. Don’t get me wrong I love steam and steam has had a lot of my money for the work they put into the platform. But i like what Epic are fighting for and they’ve been open about it from the very beginning. I wish they would sort out their verify/repair files option for when you format your drives. The whole rename/redownload hack is an absolutely awful archaic solution.
They've been open about how they so openly violate the terms of the platforms they distribute on.
They spent over a billion on legal battles, and also had significant layoffs. Maybe they should cater to their employees first before forcing governments to add more regulations for industries governments just do not understand. The EU DMA - Apple's policies and lawyers have made a mockery of it every step of the way.
And back when they openly and proudly violated Apple's policies, they tried using Fortnite to coerce its players (including children) to rally against Apple's 30% fee.
Which is the same 30% fee console makers apply, but Epic has no problem with that! Epic isn't fighting for you, they're fighting for themselves and don't mind siphoning the money they get from Unreal, even if it results in layoffs.
First of all you’re wrong, but second of all you clearly don’t know an awful lot about what you’re talking about.
Epic proudly violated Apple's terms by introducing their own payment option in Fortnite. Fact. That's literally what started this. Epic then went on to put banners in Fortnite as a not-so-subtle call-to-arms against Apple.
Epic also violated console terms by enabling cross-platform play in Fortnite. Fact.
Epic cut 800 jobs a year ago. Fact.
Epic sucks, their engine is too big for them to fail and they know it, so they're using that to subsidize their legal battles against Apple and their attempts to rally international governments into creating regulations based on what *they* want.
Epics launcher is a piece of crap compared to steams. In fact every launcher so far is crap compared to it. The only reason epic has any traction is they literally give away games in order to drive a user base.
Shaz from GL: "Where Sony is ramping down support for PSVR2, and Apple are reconsidering their future with the Vision Pro, Meta and the Quest 3 continue to shine."
I'll admit that Facebook is doing more for VR than others. But they also have blown over 50 billion dollars so far and growing in R&D, building the meta verse, buying up exclusives and underpricing their products below build price, to kill competition in the stand alone space. Sony and Valve aren't willing to go into the red at an unheard level to capture the market. We know Sony could build a stand alone device that beats Quest just by the features in PS VR 2 and the new stand alone headset they built. But the new Sony would rather build a device they can profit from day one.
But, Sony so far has profited on hardware and on software. They just don't seem willing to spend the money on marketing, selling under build price or spending millions on making in-house VR exclusives for PS VR 2. Which sucks big time. They're just letting 3rd parties and indies run the show.
Article also doesn't mention that Apple's headset is more a developers product than a mass market item. To say they are looking into making a cheaper one for the next iteration is speaking the obvious. Duh. That was always the case. Build something the public sees as quality not can't afford, then make another that the masses can afford. TVs, cars, cellphones etc all were once expensive. Now, they're cheap to buy with many options to choose from. And Apple isn't even selling VP as a VR headset. I'm well aware that Apple's true intentions is to build a device that pushes AR with VR as an option. Not build a VR device. Because they know eventually that they want to replace the cellphone with AR glasses or an AR headset. If they cared about games, they would have launched as a gaming device.
Lastly, Facebook launched Quest 3 last year. But has not mentioned how many they sold up to this point. Why is that? Besides Quest 2 selling more by being cheap, the market can't move forward until they start selling more Quest 3 headsets than 2. Maybe the new exclusive Batman and Hitman games will help. But we'll see.
Not dead, but definitely on life support from the third party devs and PC crowd who may just purchase the headset.
Although I saw someone say that the module adapter will no allow haptics and adaptive triggers to work, but I don’t know if any of that is true.
Nope. Not yet.
It’s tough to say what its future will bring. There is still decent support. It seems to have sold decently too. Sony seems absent in a direct way though.
The issues Meta have is they are Meta. I'll never buy a Meta product, Every Quest headset they release is always a case of it's not quite there from a hardware perspective and the game content is mostly from indie devs. Selling what should be a AAA experience with C tier games is a non starter.
Meta is also Billions and billions in the hole in regards to VR. If Sony were to do what Meta has done, they'd be bankrupt
Meta is losing billions on a business that theh will probably walk away from like they did the Facebook phone. Temper your expectations of your investments in Meta’s hardware.
I do wish Sony would release more for PSVR. It’s a neat product, but they don’t support it much. It may have the same fate as the Vita.
I know it’s two completely separate products as Vita was stand alone, and PSVR is a companion to PS consoles. More 1st party support would really boost it though.
They are done supporting it. They're relying on pc to do it for them. Sony even paused production because it's not selling
They paused production to get rid of inventory, doesn’t mean the headset isn’t selling, it’s just not selling as fast as Sony thought it would. But with their half assed approach to the headset and lack of first party games, it’s not surprising, saddening, but not surprising.
Meta out here buying up all the exclusives, this is the only part of the gaming market where I feel exclusives should not be a thing since the market is “still in its infancy”.
That's exactly what it means... you think people are buying a headset with min support for the price of the console? It's done man. Sadly because like the vita the tech is good and deserved better
I own PS VR 1, and it is packed with tons of games to pick from in nearly every genre you could think of. While the technology may be rudimentary compared to newer headsets, it still works, and is fun to play, which is what matters most.
Its a shame that PS VR 2 is having such a slow start, because the tech behind it is brilliant. Its currently on sale for $100 USD off, that needs to be a permanent price drop.
We need more first party games on PS VR 2, the fact that Jim Ryan shut down Sony London Studios right before he left was moronic, they should have been upgrading their hit game Blood & Truth for PS VR 2! What a stupid decision.
Kids should not have a device that expensive. End of story.
If you can afford something like that, then you shouldn't complain about small charges.
BEHOLD, TEH FUTURE OF GAMINZ!
(at least...according to the zealots and idiot journalists)
That is where the $$$ for those cheap gaming apps. Facebook games has done it successfully (just look at Zynga) I just facepalm when some of my friends bought stuff for farmville and other flash games.
This wouldn't be an issue if parents would educate themselves about the device before they let their kids play with it. IE require a password before any purchase is made. You can't fix stupid tho.
Dear Apple, I'm mad because I don't like to keep an eye on my child. I suck as a parent and am very irresponsible. I recently got a huge bill and I need someone to blame for my shortcomings. Sincerely, dumb parent /s