The Apple vs. Epic Games suit is still ongoing, but the result of the court proceedings could change how app stores work entirely. Epic claims that Apple and Google both use their vast reach to create and maintain a monopoly to suppress any competition.
This is allegedly done by forcing developers to use their mandated payment gateways and taking a 30% cut of all the in-app purchases.
But, aside from showing us how Google and Apple try and keep a stranglehold on the market, the lawsuits have also shown us the inner workings of these companies. An updated filing of court documents has now revealed that Google had initially considered acquiring Epic Games to eliminate the competition.
Not content with the contractual and technical barriers it has carefully constructed to eliminate competition, Google uses its size, influence, power, and money to induce third parties into anticompetitive agreements that further entrench its monopolies.
Updated Complaint
The document goes on to say,
For example, Google has gone so far as to share its monopoly profits with business partners to secure their agreement to fence out the competition, has developed a series of internal projects to address the ‘contagion’ it perceived from efforts by Epic and others to offer consumers and developers competitive alternatives, and has even contemplated buying some or all of Epic to squelch this threat.
Updated Complaint
You can read the entire document here.
If this is surprising, trust us, you’re not the only one to be taken aback. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeny shares your surprise regarding this matter. He tweeted that they had no idea of these plans at the time and only just got to know through the court documents.
He also went on to say he wasn’t sure if this would have been a business merger or a hostile takeover. He called out Google for their use of the term “frankly abysmal” for the sideloading experience and the hypocrisy of calling Android an “open platform.”
According to other documents which have come to light due to the proceedings, we have learned that Epic Games lost $130 million during the first wave of its exclusives.
The company had spent $217 million in minimum guarantees and recovered only $86 million, just 40% of the initial investment.
About Epic Games
Established in 1991, Epic Games is an American video game and software developer founded by CEO Tim Sweeney and is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina. The company developed the Unreal Engine, a commercially available game engine that also powers their internally developed video games, such as the Unreal, Gears of War, and Infinity Blade series. Fortnite, one of the world’s biggest games with over 350 million accounts and 2.5 billion friend connections, is run by Epic.
Epic offers an end-to-end digital platform for developers and creators to create, distribute, and operate games and other content through Unreal Engine, Epic Games Store, and Epic Online Services.
About Tenki No Ko manga to end with 3rd volume in October
Original animes or theatrical releases often inspire manga adaptation. Makoto Shinkai’s second film Weathering With You, popularly known as Tenki No Ko, was another successful film that inspired a manga adaptation.
Tenki No Ko’s second compiled volume revealed on Tuesday that the manga adaptation would reach its conclusion with its third and final volume in October in Kodansha’s Afternoon magazine.
Wataru KUBOTA’s manga adaptation of the film began serialization in Kodansha’s Afternoon magazine in July 2019. It received its first compilation volume last November and its second compilation volume this Tuesday.
Vertical has licensed the series and will ship its first compilation volume on September 1 in the US. The company described the story as :
“The summer of freshman year of high school. A boy named Hodaka runs away from his island home and goes to Tokyo, where he spends every day in loneness. Then, in the corner of the bustling city, he meets a girl named Hina. But he soon finds out that she possesses a mysterious power.“
The film had also inspired a novel authored by Shinkai himself, which was released in print and digital format by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko on July 18, 2019.
About Tenki no Ko
The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits.
The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if to suggest his future. He lives his days in isolation, but finally finds work as a writer for a mysterious occult magazine.
Then one day, Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky…
Source: Weathering With You manga’s 2nd volume
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