Fresh off its legal victory in the years-long courtroom battle with Apple, Epic Games is getting ready to relaunch “Fortnite” in the App Store with a Rewards program offer that encourages people to use its own payment option rather than the iPhone maker’s system. Gamers who make purchases in “Fortnite,” “Rocket League” or “Fall Guys” using Epic’s payment system will get 20 percent credited back as Epic Rewards. The global offer for those in-game purchases is good in perpetuity, whether made using iOS, Android, a PC or the Web, as long as Epic’s payment system is used. Continue reading Epic Games Rewarding Players for Using Its Payment System

Apple had a legal setback last week when a federal judge in California ruled in favor of Epic Games, which sued the tech giant for violating a court order to stop demanding commission fees for purchases outside of the Apple App Store. In a ruling last week, Apple was found to be in “willful violation” of a 2021 injunction prohibiting it from anticompetitive practices involving pricing. U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers went so far as to refer the case to prosecutors for a possible criminal investigation. Apple has already filed a notice of appeal. Continue reading Stakes Escalate for Apple as Epic Scores Lower Court Victory

The Walt Disney Company, which last year invested $1.5 billion in Epic Games and its “Fortnite” online gaming franchise, has unveiled plans for what is being called its biggest “Star Wars” collaboration with the platform “Fortnite: Galactic Battle.” Rolling out beginning May 2, the new battle royale season is a five-part saga where players will experience new “Star Wars” gameplay each week through early June. While Disney-owned Lucasfilm and Epic’s “Fortnite” have joined forces before to mount battle royale seasons with “Star Wars” characters, the “Galactic” effort is said to be its most expansive collaboration to date. Continue reading Star Wars Coming to Fortnite in New ‘Galactic Battle’ Season

Speaking in San Francisco during the Game Developers Conference this week, Netflix Games President Alain Tascan discussed how its gaming content can keep the platform’s 700 million-plus customers entertained between seasons. “We are not yet the Netflix of games, but that is where we are headed,” the executive said, calling gaming “the biggest shift in entertainment in the last 30 years.” In light of global youth’s involvement with games, “we see we need to be there,” Tascan said. Netflix added its first mobile games in 2021 and has since expanded by purchasing video game studios and building one from scratch. Continue reading Netflix Execs Discuss a Continued Push into Gaming Business

A new Discord Social SDK allows developers to integrate the platform in-app for games. Discord is massively popular with gamers; the company estimates PC players alone spend more than 1.5 billion hours each month on the platform. This free SDK can extend the user experience beyond the third-party content in which it becomes embedded to reach the platform’s community of over 200 million monthly active users. “Developers can power friends lists, cross-platform messaging, voice and more for all players — with or without a Discord account,” the company announced. Continue reading New Discord Social SDK Integrates Platform In-App for Games

Nvidia is updating its cloud-based GeForce NOW game platform with 1440p streaming, ultrawide resolution and, in lieu of a price increase, a 100-hour monthly playtime cap for new subscribers at the Priority tier (now called Performance), or Ultimate level, effective January 1. Existing Priority members will be automatically upgraded to Performance, which also lets members save in-game graphics settings across streaming sessions, including GeForce RTX features in supported titles. Ultimate members continue with RTX 4080-powered game performance of up to 4K resolution at 120 fps, or 1080p and 240 fps in Competitive mode. Continue reading Nvidia Ups GeForce NOW Gaming Cloud to 1440p Streaming

The first big play from Disney following February’s $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games is “ESPN Football Island,” available now as part of the “Fortnite” social gaming platform. The new sports-themed experience is designed to get football in front of younger fans. Games include navigating an obstacle course and “high-intensity box fights,” with the main action centering on “Touchdown Rush,” where players “team up with friends and enter the stadium to navigate rocky terrain, a lava moat, and the other team,” according to ESPN. The experience includes participation from ESPN announcers and will soon feature regular updates highlighting the current season. Continue reading Disney, Epic Launch ‘ESPN Football Island’ Experience Online

Epic Games has launched Fab, an online marketplace for buying, selling, sharing and discovering digital assets. Fab supports different types of creators with content for use across Unreal Engine, Unity 3D and Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN). Developers will be able to access Fab in the Unreal Engine 5 Editor, while “Fortnite” creators can look forward to tapping game-ready assets through Fab in UEFN. Epic says Fab will eventually support all game engines. It’s live now on the Web, though the Fab UEFN integration “is undergoing maintenance” while the Unreal Engine 5 Editor implementation is “coming soon.” Continue reading Epic’s Fab Marketplace Has Open Approach to Digital Assets

Competing chipmakers Intel and AMD are joining forces on an advisory group for x86 computing. Invented by Intel and launched in 1978, the x86 architecture remains one of the most widely used platforms in the world, but has already been displaced by ARM in mobile, and is now fending off a challenge from that architecture in the AI space. Also participating in the x86 advisory are Broadcom, Dell, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., Lenovo, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle and Red Hat, joined by tech luminaries Linus Torvalds, inventor of Linux, and Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. Continue reading Rivals Intel and AMD Team Up to Launch x86 Advisory Group

The battle between Epic Games and Apple has arrived at a truce that finds the game maker’s massively popular “Fortnite” title back on iOS in the European Union, where Apple was pushed into the move by the competition-fostering Digital Markets Act. “Fortnite” is now available for iPhones there via the new Epic Games Store as well as the third-party outlet AltStore PAL. The launch comes after years of litigation between Epic and Apple in Europe and the U.S., where the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, resulting in a decision Epic found less satisfactory than the EU outcome. Continue reading Epic Launches App Store for iOS in the EU, Android Globally

An alternative app store called AltStore PAL recently launched in response to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and is now offering third-party iOS apps. The move comes several months after the company implemented an updated version of its open-source app marketplace in the EU. The DMA was enacted to foster competition, regulating Apple into opening up to rivals. Among AltStore PAL’s new offerings is iTorrent, which lets users download peer-to-peer files, and qBitControl, a remote client for iOS devices. Another app, PeopleDrop, automatically helps users connect to those nearby. Epic Games revealed it plans to offer “Fortnite” on AltStore PAL. Continue reading App Merchant AltStore PAL Bows in EU with a Focus on iOS

The Entertainment Technology Center@USC has released the fourth and final installment of its case study, “Fathead: Virtual Production & Beyond.” Chapter 4 of the four-part white paper is titled “Key Contributors: Process Pipelines,” which summarizes key findings of the production and recommended best practices moving forward. “Fathead” — directed by c. Craig Patterson and produced by Erik Weaver, ETC’s director of adaptive production — was shot at Amazon Stage 15 in Culver City as an experiment in virtual production, in-camera VFX and collaborative, cloud-based workflows. Continue reading ETC Releases Final Section of Virtual Production White Paper

Apple has approved the Epic Games Store app for iOS and the App Store in the EU. But the battle apparently continues, with Apple couching the move as “temporary,” and Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney vowing to fight any reversals. Sweeney says Apple is “demanding we change the buttons in the next version — which would make our store less standard and harder to use. We’ll fight this.” Even a temporary toehold moves Sweeney — whose Maryland-based Epic Games is home to the popular “Fortnite” — closer to its goal of an alt game store on the insular Apple platform at home and abroad. Continue reading Apple Issues ‘Temporary’ Epic Game Store Approval for iOS

After a limited introduction in select markets and to Premium subscribers, YouTube’s Playables free gaming catalog is rolling out to all users. More than 75 games are currently accessible on desktop, Android and iOS by visiting the main YouTube home page and selecting Playables in the Explore menu. Games can be shared by tapping the three-dot “more” menu. The lightweight offerings include popular titles like “Angry Birds Showdown,” “Words of Wonders,” “Cut the Rope” and “Trivia Crack,” among others. Availability will ramp up gradually over the coming months. Continue reading YouTube Adding ‘Playables’ Free Game Catalog for All Users

Since Epic Games debuted the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) and Creator Economy 2.0 tools in March 2023, the company says creators have published more than 80,000 UENF islands, and Epic has rewarded creators with more than $320 million in engagement payouts. Now Epic is adding more core features to UEFN: MetaHuman Creator and MetaHuman Animator, which enable the creation and animation of non-playable MetaHuman characters. Epic’s UEFN 2024 roadmap, presented at this week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, includes more camera options for the player-made game platform, including a first-person perspective. Continue reading MetaHuman and Animator Now Available to Fortnite Creators