Over the course of the Epic v. Apple case, much has come to light about how both companies generate profit. One of the biggest shocks comes from the closing ruling of the case, which reveals that 70% of the App Store’s money comes from games.
This lawsuit was brought by Epic Games in August 2020. The general gist of the case is that Epic added a payment system to Fortnite mobile that allowed players to avoid an extra 30% fee usually applied to App Store purchases, which goes to Apple. In response to the workaround, Apple removed Fortnite from its marketplace, which prompted Epic to take the matter to court.
The case has officially wrapped up, with both Apple and Epic getting something from the final ruling. Most interestingly, information about Apple’s revenue model was unmasked to the general public at the end. The ruling reveals that gaming apps are the source of around 70% of the entirety of the App Store’s earnings. Even more astounding is the fact that the 70% is made up of less than 10% of all App Store consumers.
That staggering percentage comes partly from the 30% revenue cut taken by Apple from app purchases in the App Store. Even before this hearing, users and developers alike have claimed the system is unfair to smaller developers.
Though the court case found that Epic Games wasn’t able to give solid evidence of Apple being monopolistic, it did gain a small victory. The ruling states that Apple must allow developers to direct app users to outside payment options beyond those that Apple promotes.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.