Items tagged with tim sweeney
Tim Sweeney has never been once to mince words. He is especially outspoken as the chief executive officer of Epic Games and there is no disputing how he feels about the industry at large, or about Apple and Google specifically. Those two entities have been known to draw his consternation (as well as lawsuits), and in a recent interview he threw some considerable shade on both. He wasn't picking on Apple and Google just for the sake of it. His ire with the two other tech heavyweights is with how they manage their respective app stores. As we have seen in ongoing litigation, he takes issues with multiple aspects of how their run their businesses, particularly with what he perceives as high royalty...
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As expected, Apple is attempting to appeal a judge's recent ruling that could allow developers to effectively bypass the company's App Store fees, by permitting them to include in-app buttons linking to outside payment systems. Apple's appeal asks for a delay on the injunction that would allow this, potentially pushing back the implementation of buttons for outside-app payments by years. The appeal elicited a comical diss by Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney. Background On Apple And Epic Games Legal Battle As things stand now, app developers generally pay Apple a 30 percent commission on apps sold in the App Store, as well as purchases made from within their apps. For this reason, some companies like...
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A court ruling earlier this month wasn't a decisive victory for either Apple or Epic Games regarding the pair's legal battle over App Store payments. While Epic scored a win in allowing app developers to choose alternative payment methods for in-app purchases, it also had to pay Apple 30 percent of its revenues for directing iOS users to the Epic Direct Payment System. In addition, presiding Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers found that Apple was not behaving as an illegal monopolist. Despite the "win" on in-app purchases, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney defiantly stated shortly after the ruling, "Fortnite will return to the iOS App Store when and where Epic can offer in-app payment in fair competition with...
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In November, Apple announced that it would reduce its App Store fees to 15 percent for the first $1 million in yearly revenue for developers following pressure from Epic Games. Like Apple before its policy change, Google took a 30 percent cut of digital goods sold through its app marketplace. Today, Google announced that it would take the same approach as Apple with lower fees in the Play Store. Starting on July 1st, "99% of developers globally that sell digital goods and services with Play will see a 50% reduction in fees," said Sameer Samat, Google VP for Product Management. "These are funds that can help developers scale up at a critical phase of their growth by hiring...
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Tim Sweeney is not one to mince words, and if he has a strong opinion on something, he will let it be known. That includes speaking out against big companies and their practices. Microsoft has mostly caught his verbal wrath, though more recently, Sweeney has turned his attention to Apple and Google, saying they exploit Epic Games and other developers, and must be stopped. His comments are rooted in the current dispute between Epic Games and both Apple and Google, over their respective app stores and the royalties associated with them. The dispute with Apple has dominated the headlines, as the two spar in court. It started when Epic Games suddenly decided to update Fortnite so that players could...
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As the number of publishers pulling out of NVIDIA's GeForce NOW cloud game streaming service continues to grow, the company has found an ally in Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, who vowed on Twitter to "wholeheartedly" support the company's efforts. He also took potshots at Apple and Google over the royalty rate each one charges on their respective app stores. "Epic is wholeheartedly supporting NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW service with Fortnite and with Epic Games Store titles that choose to participate (including exclusives), and we’ll be improving the integration over time," Sweeney wrote. He also called GeForce NOW "the most developer-friendly and publisher-friendly of the major streaming...
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Tim Sweeney is a CEO and co-founder of Epic Games, and he recently delivered a keynote speech at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas. During his keynote he shared some of his thoughts on the future of the gaming industry and issued a warning for all gaming companies against what he terms "customer adversarial" business practices. He noted that businesses should operate "as neutral venues for entertainment." He says that customers and employees along with everyone else can hold their own views and not be judged by Epic for those views. He also talked about controversy that surrounds political censorship noting that companies need to "divorce themselves from politics." Most assume that the gaming executive...
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Epic Games has caught some flak for serving up paid exclusives in its recently launched Epic Games store, such as Borderlands 3—publisher 2K Games agreed to give the Epic Games store dibs for the first six months, a decision that developer Gearbox Software had no part of. Valve has the power to stop that sort of thing though, if it agrees to certain terms. In a Twitter post, Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney called on Valve to offer a bigger chunk of revenue to developers and publishers, in exchange for no more Epic Game store exclusives. Specifically, Sweeney wants Valve to bump the revenue share on Steam to a permanent 88 percent "without major strings attached." In return, Epic...
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The gap between real-life scenery and digitally produced visuals is continually shrinking, and one day we might not be able to tell the difference between the two. Working in that direction is Epic Games. Using its Unreal Engine, the development studio has created a digital human called Siren with realistic graphics and facial animation that is remarkably similar to that of a real human. "One thing we’ve been interested in over the years is digital humans. Two years ago we showed Senua, the Hellblade character. To this day, that’s pretty much state of the art. But we wanted to see if we could get closer to crossing the uncanny valley. She was great, but you could see that the facial...
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It’s no secret the Epic founder Tim Sweeney hates Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform (UWP), which he has made clear on many occasions. UWP, which in essence is a replacement for the venerable Win32 API, is increasingly being used for Windows games, and is the only way to distribute gamers through the Windows Store. The unified codebase allows for game developers to consolidate resources, making it easier to create titles that can run equally well on Windows 10 PCs and the Xbox One gaming console. However, Sweeney isn’t buying into what Microsoft is selling. “Microsoft has launched new PC Windows features exclusively in UWP, and is effectively telling developers you can use these Windows features...
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Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney isn't a fan of what Microsoft is doing with Windows 10, and specifically its effort to promote the Windows Store by pushing the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) model. We already know this, but lest anyone think Sweeney has cooled off since the last time he raked Microsoft over the coals, he had more to say on the matter, accusing the Redmond outfit of being sneaky in its attempt to overthrow Steam. "There are two programming interfaces for Windows and every app has to choose one of them. Every Steam app - every PC game for the past few decades - has used Win32. It's been both responsible for the vibrant software market we have now, but also for malware. Any program...
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Both Microsoft and Sony are on a path to shake things up in the console world by releasing upgraded systems with more powerful hardware equipped for gaming at 4K Ultra HD. Their plans represent a deviation from the traditional console cycle in which several years lapse in between brand new machines, and if you ask Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney about it, he'll tell you it's the "best of both worlds." Taking a view of the changing landscape from Sweeney's perspective, porting over the upgrade cycle of a PC to the console world is nothing but a good thing, one that ensures the latest hardware (peripherals) and games remain relevant for the entire seven year period (and beyond, really) in between major...
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