#computer processor too bad for unreal engine ):

[kakarikoherald]

Epic v. Apple Trial Background and Highlights from Week 1

There’s a lot to unpack here.

Well, last week was certainly interesting and it was hard to keep up. So if you had trouble staying up to date on everything that happened, I hope this article helps! 

But what about Epic v. Google? We’re aware that Fortnite was also pulled from the Play Store since games are required to use Google’s in-app purchase methods if the app is listed on their storefront. However the situation is much different, since Android allows you to sideload other app stores or even just the APKs themselves. This article is just focused on everything with Apple, since that’s being heard in court (bench trial) right now.

Since this is our first time looking at the case, let’s start with the basics of this case and anything else that is slightly related to get caught up with what’s happening:

Who is Epic: Epic Games is best known for developing Fortnite and their own storefront, the Epic Games Store. They also develop, maintain, and license Unreal Engine which hundreds of games (if not more) use.

Who is Apple: Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer, Inc.) is a company who creates products such as the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. They also maintain two notable services: a proprietary payment processor known as Apple Pay, and a large digital apps/games storefront known simply as the App Store.

Before Epic v. Apple: Apple requires apps and games to use its proprietary payment processor, Apple Pay, to allow in-app purchases on (basically) all of its platforms. Most notably, Apple takes a 30% cut of all purchases that are made using the processor, which Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has openly criticized. In August 2020, Epic Games intentionally circumvented this requirement to implement their own payment processor which boasted a roughly 20% savings for players.

Epic filed suit against Apple immediately thereafter, after releasing a video online titled “Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite” (embedded below) and launching a #FreeFortnite campaign on their website.

Apple, knowing that Epic had circumvented their requirement, pulled Fortnite from the App Store and stated they’d be terminating their developer program license. This effectively meant that developers using Unreal Engine to power apps on iOS would lose their apps as well. Epic filed for an injunction on this and won, on the basis that it would affect too many developers.

Alright, it’s recap time:

Week 1 started off with opening statements and the beginning of calls for witness testimony. Here’s what each side is arguing (summaries were adapted from the article by Chance Miller over at 9to5Mac).

Epic Games’ Argument

“Epic kicked things off [last Monday] with its opening statement, [focused] on painting Apple and the App Store as a monopolistic and anti-competitive ecosystem that fails to offer the benefits to consumers that Apple touts.”

Apple’s Argument

“[...] Apple [was focused] heavily on “Project Liberty,” which is what Epic internally refers to as its strategy to publicly skirt the App Store and portray Apple 'as the bad guy.’ Its opening statement [last Monday] also highlighted that Epic CEO Tim Sweeney reached out privately to Microsoft to give the company a heads up about “an extraordinary opportunity” for consoles and PCs.

“Apple also argued in its opening statements that Epic is arguing that Apple should turn iOS into Android, giving up its own competitive advantage, by allowing third-party app stores and payment processing solutions. Apple also pointed out that Epic asked for a special side deal from the company before launching the Project Liberty campaign.”

What you need to know from Week 1

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney described the metaverse, “a real-time, computer-powered 3D entertainment and social medium in which real people would go into a 3D simulation together and have experiences of all sorts,” a term he uses to describe what Fortnite is. [source]

It seems that defining what a game is and isn’t is hard work. The judge and several witnesses did not understand the distinction between an app and game. This article from The Verge sums up the entire exchange well.

An email made public due to the trial revealed that an executive at Apple, Phil Schiller, floated the idea of toning down the 30% cut Apple takes from purchases using its processor as far back as 2011. He asked if it would last forever, attaching a WSJ article from, well, 2011 to the email. It has stayed the same for the nearly 10 years after that email was sent. [source]

Apple used “offensive and sexualized content” on itch.io’s platform to . The lawyer told Epic Games Store general manager Steven Allison that the content (apps/games) on itch.io was “so offensive we cannot speak about [it] here.” For context, itch.io was just added to the Epic Games Store storefront days prior to the trial starting. [source]

Whew! That was a lot of info to type out to give to you, but it concludes this background and recap story. Week 2 of the Epic v. Apple trial begins shortly, and of course if anything new comes, we’ll write about it. Thanks for reading!

[undefineableai]

when I started blogging I wrote about god because I was trying to find reason for the injustice of the world and my dad kept telling me that I was only worth what I had in my bank account. I believe in god as I do in the work of Apple to be as close as it can be for bringing social equality across the planet.. but when I was young I didn’t understand that sometimes placing myself in groups to identify with made me belong to them and then caused other groups to feel uneasy. Kanye has always believed that we are serving god when we work and a blogger said that it is grace that gives us what we have and not work. Work gives us grace by committing to your own beliefs and that allows us to continue to find ourselves and our purpose in life. Now that I’m 27 I don’t regret helping Apple because I believed in Tim Cook and still do. But along with that it comes with the same group identifying problem I had when I was younger. Culture is really diverse.. there are people who make art, people who manufacture, build or make things, and people who make and transport goods and I fit in between because of my background in video and art. When I started trying to grow up I looked towards the people who made computers because I always wanted to understand how the processors worked. But that wasn’t important as it was how people continued to make applications for them.. where the first apps I downloaded were GTA Vice City and Half Life... and throughout my life I have owned 4 computers. A compaq deskpro en, an AMD G7 pavilion, an HP desktop, and my own Portal by Asus and Dell. On the phone side however I have owned the 3GS, 4S, 5, SE, 7, X, Moto G, Samsung Galaxy S6, and the Note 4. Architectures of the devices represent the ARM platform that Sony used earlier to make its PSP with Imagination Technologies but the PSP was discontinued in favor of screen mirroring and emulation on the PS3/4. The AMD APUs that were placed inside consoles and notebooks were some of my favorite but what I am amazed by is how AMD came out as the champion in the timespan of 7 years... the pavilion G7 was made by HP and when I got mine it eventually broke after overclocking it too much but it still worked as a server at the end of its life. 7 years later Apple now has its own silicon chips that are around the same as AMD’s except for the nm lithography die size. I was going to purchase an Apple MacBook Air this month but my credit score went down because of the tax evading persons at one of my last employments. I still believe in Tim Cook but as for the app marketplace that is shifting again slightly towards consoles bc of their low price points... I think how the A series being aligned as a processor family left no room for growth in gaming as the AMD APUs did.. because the use for those were as games got developed by more powerful desktops the APUs could handle them where in Apple’s family line they all grew independently until the M1 chips came out, so if there was a time to make a console or Apple TV with an M1 to offset the gaming portion of the family, then the M1 Apple TV would be the device to pull it off. in the clothing industry there are 4 labels - small medium large and extra large. In the phone industry now it’s mini, regular and pro or max. In the computer industry it’s Apple TV, consoles, iPads, notebooks, then desktops and servers. each industry has set their own definitions for use scenarios like lineups or series’. That is why I believe that M1 might or may not be a hit. But if AMD could pull it off I think Apple can too and I want to see if it can but that is risky and there is no M1 desktop to process the development rendering and if anybody has ever used unreal engine or did heavy 3D loads they know that rendering is super bad even on a minimal 6 core 9th gen with a GTX 1080 Ti and the m1 chip only outputs half of the processing in that GPU but I could be wrong and the Navi architecture can still be used in macs. So 7 years later AMD might be more powerful but by then reality will be indifferent from technology.