Fortnite fans may be in for a nice surprise, with Epic CEO Tim Sweeney saying the game may come back to iOS in 2023.
Fortnite has been absent from the App Store since Epic and Apple’s legal squabbles. Epic decided to stop paying Apple’s App Store fees, resulting in Fortnite being banned from the App Store and sparking a legal fight between the two companies. After Apple largely won the legal battle, it appears Epic may finally be ready to make peace and try to get Fortnite back on Apple’s platform.
Sweeney tweeted about the possibility on the last day of 2022:
Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, has been fined $520 million by the FTC for failing to comply with child privacy laws and employing “dark patterns.”
According to the Federal Trade Commission, Epic violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting massive amounts of data without parental consent. What’s more, the company made it needlessly difficult for parents to request that any data regarding their children be deleted. Because the company licensed and marketed various Fortnite-inspired toys and merchandise, the company could not say it didn’t know that many of its users were children.
In addition, the FTC accused Epic of using so-called “dark patters” to trick children into unintentional purchases. As a result, the company was fined $275 million for the COPPA violations, and will pay another $245 million in refunds for dark pattern purchases. The company is also required to change Fortnite’s default settings to better protect children’s privacy.
“As our complaints note, Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teenagers and children,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “Protecting the public, and especially children, from online privacy invasions and dark patterns is a top priority for the Commission, and these enforcement actions make clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices.”
“The Justice Department takes very seriously its mission to protect consumers’ data privacy rights,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “This proposed order sends a message to all online providers that collecting children’s personal information without parental consent will not be tolerated.”
The Department of Justice (DOJ) may be close to launching an antitrust lawsuit against Apple after a years-long investigation.
The DOJ began investigating Apple’s App Store practices in 2019, but the investigation eventually widened to include the company’s interaction with other hardware developers. According to Politico, the agency is close to a decision and could proceed with a lawsuit in the near future.
Apple’s App Store serves as the only way to install applications on the company’s iPhones and iPads. Initially lauded as a breakthrough for small developers, sentiment has soured in recent years, with many developers wanting to avoid Apple’s fees or avoid the App Store altogether.
The company has also faced increasing criticism from other hardware makers, such as smart-tracking device maker Tile, who claims the company makes it difficult for them to integrate their products with iOS.
According to Politico, no decision has been reached, but officials are looking at the App Store, as well as Apple’s mobile operating systems in general.
Making a case against Apple will not be an easy matter. Epic Games sued Apple in an effort to circumvent the App Store and the mandatory use of Apple’s payment processing system. Epic largely failed in making its case, with the judge ruling that Apple was not a monopoly. The only victory Epic scored was the judge ruling that Apple cannot prevent developers from using third-party payment systems. Both companies have appealed the ruling.
Politico believes the DOJ will wait to see how the appeals court rules in the Epic case before making a final decision on whether to proceed with an antitrust suit.
Apple is using an unexpected argument to protest its Colombian ban, claiming its human rights have been violated.
Apple and Ericsson are locked in a legal battle over 5G patents. Apple stopped paying Ericsson’s licensing fees, claiming the company’s patents should fall under friendly, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Ericsson won a major victory in Colombia, with the country banning Apple’s 5G iPhones and iPads, despite the country not having a 5G network.
Apple is now resorting to an unusual argument, saying that the Colombian ruling violates its human rights, according to FOSS Patents. Apple claims the ruling violates its rights under Article 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
“Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.”
Apple is seeking emergency relief from:
Ericsson
Its Colombian law firm (OlarteMoure)
Carlos R. Olarte (a name partner of that firm and Ericsson’s lead counsel in the Colombian case)
Civil Court No. 43 of the Bogotá Circuit
Apple filed an emergency motion in the Eastern District of Texas in an effort to recoup its losses in Colombia, but Judge Rodney S. Gilstrap had a stark warning (via FOSS Patents) for the iPhone maker.
“Emergency motions are to be filed only in truly extenuating circumstances and should not be used as a means to secure an expedited briefing schedule and hearing before the Court,” Judge Gilstrap writes, and “finds that Apple has misused and misapplied the rules for emergency motion practice in this Court.”
Judge Gilstrap put Apple “on notice that further such conduct will warrant, and likely result in, sanctions against it.”
What’s more, Judge Gilstrap declined to interfere in the Colombian court’s decision.
“Here, Apple invites this Court to inject itself into an ongoing proceeding in Colombia. The Court declines Apple’s invitation,” reads his ruling.
Apple Is Running the Epic Games Playbook
The fact remains that Apple intentionally stopped paying Ericsson’s licensing fees because it felt they were too expensive and then cried foul when it suffered a legal and financial setback as a result. The situation is very similar to the one Epic Games created when it decided to circumvent Apple’s App Store commission and then sued over the financial losses it suffered when Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store.
As the judge in that case commented, a company can’t knowingly take action that is contrary to applicable agreements and/or laws and then cry foul and ask for emergency relief when it suffers the results of its own actions.
Apple, of all companies, should no better after having the very same tactic used against it by Epic. Just as the judge in that case admonished Epic, Apple should have abided by the agreement while taking their case to court. Had they won, they could have been awarded damages.
Instead, because of the way it has handled the case, Apple comes across as looking like a bully that is grasping for straws when it hasn’t been able to get its way.
Google has taken the fight to Epic Games, countersuing the company for breach of contract.
Epic sued both Apple and Google, claiming the two companies were monopolies, given their control over their respective app stores. Apple largely won its case, with the judge ruling it was not a monopoly and that it acted within its rights to ban Fortnite when Epic breached its contract with Apple.
In fact, the judge in the Apple case pointed out Epic’s hypocrisy in creating a crisis by breaching its contract, thereby escalating the situation, and then claiming it was suffering damage from that escalation. Judge Rodgers also ordered Epic to pay Apple fees for the months it was in breach of its developers agreement with Apple.
At the same time, the judge did issue a permanent injunction preventing Apple from prohibiting developers from providing links to their own payment methods, methods that would be outside of Apple’s commission.
No doubt bolstered by Judge Rodgers’ decision in that case, Google has now countersued Epic for providing a version of Fortnite via the Play Store that links to Epic’s outside payment processing, thereby bypassing Google’s fees. According to ZDNet, Google has made it clear it has no problem with Epic providing their own payment system — as long as it is done on a side-loaded version of Fortnite, one outside the Play Store.
“Epic has alternatively been unjustly enriched at Google’s expense,” reads Google’s complaint, according to ZDNet.
“Consumers and developers don’t have to use Google Play, they choose to use it when given a choice among Android app stores and distribution channels. Google supports that choice through Android itself, Google Play’s policies, and Google’s agreements with developers and device manufacturers.”
“Just 20 years ago the one really big player was Microsoft.,” says former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. “Microsoft has now been joined by four other very large companies each of which is run cleverly but in a different way. We benefit from that brutal competition. The reason it’ll be different in 20 years is because artificial intelligence will create a whole bunch of new platform winners.”
Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, who is launching a new podcast today, discusses how AI will spawn a whole new batch of tech platform winners:
AI Will Create a Bunch Of New Platform Winners
Just 20 years ago the one really big player was Microsoft. Microsoft has now been joined by four other very large companies each of which is run cleverly but in a different way. They have different ways in which they win and they lose. We benefit from that brutal competition. Look at what you have in a mobile phone. The competition between Android andIOS and Apple phones and the Android ecosystem has brought a supercomputer into your pocket. That’s going to continue.
The reason it’ll be different in 20 years is because artificial intelligence will create a whole bunch of new platform winners. Remember that the way this works is the US establishes global platforms that everyone else uses. We are forgetting that it is US leadership at the platform level, whether it’s Google or Apple or what have you, that has brought us to this point where we have multi-trillion-dollar corporations that are leading the market.
Be Careful About Breaking Up The App Store Model
I don’t know enough about the Epic Games/Apple dispute because I left the board a decade ago. However, the important thing about the app stores is that they provide some level of security, branding, and protection for the user. In China, for example, Google does not have a single app store because of regulatory issues. So there has always been issues of is the app that you’re using certified and so forth.
I would be careful about breaking up the app store model as it does provide some security and protection. We can quibble about how they’re managed but the important thing is when you use an app store you can rely that what’s on it is represented to be what it really is. Just think of all those viruses that you are not getting as a result of the app store.
Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt: AI Will Create a Bunch Of New Platform Winners
“Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, feels that Fortnite is large enough and scaled enough and that Apple needs Fortnite more than Fortnite needs Apple… and Google too for that matter,” says Alex Kruglov, CEO of pop.in. “Tim very intentionally wanted to get kicked out of the store. There is no other way to explain what they did so that they can make this very public and so they can have a lawsuit.”
Apple and Google Must Reduce The Tax On Developers
I definitely like the idea of challenging both the Apple store and the Google store in getting them to reduce the tax that they charge all of the developers. There are two potential issues here. Issue number one is that the tax is decided by Apple and Google and can be changed at any time. There is nothing that developers can do because there is no other place we can go to. There is no other way to get on the devices and a person usually has only one device.
Secondly, kind of similar to TicketMaster in the 90s, when Pearl Jam went against them, they control the entire ecosystem. This includes the ability to advertise within your store to get your app downloaded. I love Apple’s clean well-lit ecosystem. I love what they’ve built. But if there is a bigger player who has leverage who can help the rest of us run more successful and profitable businesses I am all for it.
Apple Needs Fortnite More Than Fortnite Needs Apple
Tim Sweeney (CEO of Epic Games) is doing this very deliberatively. There is no question about it. If you follow Tim on Twitter or just in general, you know that he has been on this campaign for quite some time, since before they started their own ecosystem. Epic has its own store and they let developers opt-in to their fee system where they charge 12 percent.
He feels that Fortnite is large enough and scaled enough and that Apple needs Fortnite more than Fortnite needs Apple… and Google too for that matter. Tim very intentionally wanted to get kicked out of the store. There is no other way to explain what they did so that they can make this very public and so they can have a lawsuit.
Apple Under Pressure To Reduce App Store Fees
Apple has been perceived as the good guy. Then on the other side with Google where with Facebook they are monopolistic given that they control essentially the entirety of the advertising system. So where do I think this ends up given the scrutiny that Apple is facing? I think that there is a very good chance that they will come back and reduce the fees and also opt-in to something firm as opposed to the set of rules that are all over the place.
This is a pretty inexpensive way for both Apple and Google to say they are listening (to developers). We’ve heard the developers and we are going to do the right thing. I’m predicting this but this is definitely not what they have done over the last decade.
Apple Needs Fortnite More Than Fortnite Needs Apple says Alex Kruglov, CEO of pop.in
“I think taking 30 percent from app developers is egregious,” says Alex Kantrowitz, publisher of the Big Technology newsletter. “It feels like protection money to me. As long as the company continues to rely on other people’s money to make its bottom line it’s going to turn slodgy, slow, bureaucratic, and I think it will eventually fall apart. Apple should back down because rent collecting is bad for its business long term.”
I don’t think it’s any accident that Epic went right after Apple’s brand which Apple has worked very hard to cultivate. Apple is a luxury product. What Epic is doing is trying to make this a battle for Apple where it says, do you want 30 percent of our revenue in the app store? Now you have to go from a company that everybody looks up to to a company that owns what it does, which is rent collects on the app store and takes 30 percent of our revenue.
That’s why Epic has had this public relations campaign ready to go. It’s why it spoke about Apple’s history in the lawsuit. It’s why this was so planned, one move after the other, to show the public that this is actually what Apple is. If Apple is going to take our money they better own what they’re doing.
Apple Taking 30 Percent From Developers Is Egregious
What do developers get from the 30 percent that they pay Apple in terms of the revenue that they hand over to stay on the app store? They get the right to exist, that’s one thing. They get quick payments, that’s another. What else are they getting and is that amount of money actually worth it? Would they be paying anybody else that amount of money unless that other person had a monopoly?
I don’t think it is worth it. I think 30 percent is egregious. It feels like protection money to me. Maybe we get somewhere in the 10 -15 percent range, that seems like the right amount for a developer to pay to Apple because Apple does provide some value. But the number right now is just totally out of whack and it exists because Apple has a monopoly on that store. It’s good that we are seeing somebody challenge what Apple’s doing.
Apple Is The Only Show In Town For Developers
Apple is basically the only show in town. If you don’t like what’s going on inside Walmart you go to your neighborhood store. If you don’t like what’s going inside the Apple app store where are you going to go? Maybe you can go to Google but Google is doing the same exact thing. I do think that Apple should definitely charge developers for what they’re getting.
The question is do developers have any wiggle room so that they can have an opportunity to negotiate with a company like Apple? What Epic is showing is that is not really the case. This is how markets (should) work. You want to have the ability for the supplier and the demander to figure out a price that makes sense versus the supplier just setting the price and your sort of out of the market otherwise.
Apple Will Eventually Fall Apart If It Doesn’t Back Down
Apple should back down because rent collecting is bad for its business long term. You have to decide as a business, do you want to make your money milking your asset or do you want to make your money innovating into the future? Right now Apple has decided that it wants to be a rent collector. It’s worked out fine under Tim Cook, I won’t deny that. If you think about Apples’ long term sustainability does it want to build a culture where it’s business is taking a fee off of other people’s businesses or does it want to force itself to invent its way into the future?
If I’m Apple I’m thinking long term. I want to have a more inventive culture, not a more asset milking culture. As long as the company continues to rely on other people’s money to make its bottom line it’s going to turn slodgy, slow, bureaucratic, and I think it will eventually fall apart. If I’m Apple, the case right here is to back down and think about where I’m going in the long term and it should be in an inventive way and not a rent seeking way.
Alex Kantrowitz of Big Technology: Apple Will Eventually Fall Apart If It Doesn’t Back Down
New Relic provides deep performance analytics for every part of a business software environment. It enables companies to easily view and analyze massive amounts of data, and gain actionable insights in real-time. Whether it’s for a popular mobile app, an online video game with millions of users, or a huge ecommerce platform, they all rely on critical New Relic insights to keep revenue flowing.
Lew Cirne, founder and CEO of New Relic, talks about how critical real-time insights from New Relic are to a companies revenue stream in an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC:
When It’s Game Time for Retail New Relic is There
For retail obviously, so much of their business, particularly their web business depends on a very small number of days; Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc. That’s game time. That’s the moment of truth. That’s when we’re working our hardest to make sure our software is there to make sure our customers can see what’s going on in real-time. Our customers were thrilled with the performance and availability that they delivered which turns into business results.
If your site is slower or down on Cyber Monday, forget it, you’re going to miss your quarter. You may never recover from that because you also have a brand hit. So it’s so vital. This is not nice to have software. Anybody who is competing on their software needs New Relic’s platform in order to succeed.
We’re a Massive Cloud Operation
We’re a massive cloud operation. We’re collecting millions of data points every second from mobile applications and from cloud infrastructure every time somebody’s pressing a button to buy something and every time someone’s watching this video on the CNBC app. We’re measuring the health of that and we do that on a massive scale. That’s one of the things our customers love.
When Fortnite said, “Hey we’ve got this huge app. It’s the biggest in the world and we want to monitor on New Relic.” We’re like great. Your biggest day is just another day for us. We collect so much data and we can do it for you.
New Relic Monitors Fortnite to Keep it Running for Millions of People
Epic Games is the company that created Fortnite and if you have kids or you’re into games this game has taken the world by storm. It’s the most popular game in the world. If that game is not working millions of people know about it and the company is affected.
So they rely on the New Relic platform to see everything in real-time on how that game is performing. It’s a very complex piece of software that has to work flawlessly in real-time. We measure everything going on in that game so that the builders of Fortnite can keep it running for millions of people 24/7.
There are different companies that do different things around observing what’s going on in this space but were the applications-centric company. What does that mean? It means that when you’re playing Fortnite what you’re doing is you’re using software.
We’re measuring the software in real-time. We do it in a cloud platform that integrates what’s going on in the software with the infrastructure and with the end-user experience, like the mobile app. We see all that together and do it in one unified platform and our customers love us for that.
New Relic Helps CNBC Scale Mobile App in Real-Time
At CNBC, you just launched an incredible new revenue app in the fall and it’s amazing. I use it a lot and I love it and again this is an app that’s getting a lot of uptake. I was talking to the team and they said customers love what the app is doing for them and they want to use it more and more. That means they have to scale.
When more and more people are using that app how are you able to handle the scale when people want to see the news in real time and want to see the stock quotes in real time? We provide them the visibility that gives them the confidence to move faster and scale to this amazing demand that the CNBC app is generating.
New Relic Helps Companies Move Fast in a Multi-Cloud World
This is so important to our customers. It’s clear that we’re entering a multi-cloud world. Obviously, Microsoft’s doing well and Amazon doing very well. We had a great show at re:INVENT. And there’s some hybrid cloud as well. What our customers are saying no matter where my software is running I want to see it all in one place. I’m sick of moving from one tool to another to see a complete picture. They turn to the New Relic platform to see it all in one place. That enables them to move fast with confidence.
Anywhere there are systems that need to perform well and scale well, those are systems that need New Relic. What we say to our customers is building great software is not easy, but it is the foundation upon which companies can build great competitive advantage. We want to partner with our customers to deliver amazing software that delights our customers and grows their business.
In literature, the unicorn is a mythical creature that’s rarely seen. In the business world, however, a unicorn was originally defined as a software company based in the United States and “valued at over $1 billion by public or private market investors.”
The expression was coined by Cowboy Ventures founder Aileen Lee back in 2013. At the time, a unicorn company was as rare as its mythological namesake, with only 39 companies included in this rarefied group. Now there are 376 businesses that fall under theunicorn category globally, and the numbers are still growing.
There have also been changes to the definition. These days, a unicorn is “a privately held startup company with a current valuation of $1 billion or more.” They are also not limited to the US. China reportedly has the most unicorn companies now.
Top 5 New US Tech Companies to Surpass a $1 Billion Valuation in 2018
5. UiPath
The software company is aiming to be the world leader in Enterprise RPA or “robotic process automation.” UiPath wants to automate routine tasks to help streamline business processes. Their open platform is touted to be extensive, with hundreds of customizable and deep integrations with AI, BPM, and ERP technologies. The company was founded in 2005 and has slowly and steadily worked its way to the top. 2018 has proven to be a banner year for the company, as it received $153 million from investors in March and was able to raise $225 million in a September funding round. UiPath is currently valued at $3 billion.
4. SnowFlake
The tech business with the ephemeral sounding name bills itself as the only data warehouse built exclusively for the cloud. Snowflake is pushing companies to combine the power and flexibility of the cloud, data warehousing and big data platforms for their data solutions. The company was founded in 2012 by Benoit Dageville and Marcin Zukowski. They’re supported by a team of technology and industry experts, as well as top-notch investors that have helped push the company to its $3.95 billion valuation.
3. DoorDash
Food is always a lucrative business, and DoorDash wisely took advantage of that fact. The on-demand food courier service has grown by leaps and bounds since it was established in 2012 by four Stanford students. The company’s use of logistic services has helped it expand to 56 markets and go head-to-head with rivals like Uber Eats and GrubHub. The company has had a lucrative year; forging partnerships with Walmart and Chipotle and raising $535 million in a Series D round. It’s currently valued at $4 billion.
2. Epic Games
The American video game developer has an epic history, beginning in 1991 when it was founded by Tim Sweeney. The company is known for developing the Unreal Engine, and games like Fortnite, Infinity Blade, Gears of War, and Unreal. Despite being around for more than two decades, the company is showing no signs of slowing down and has climbed its way to a valuation of $15 billion.
1. Juul Labs
Billed as the smoking alternative, Juul was founded in 2017 and immediately found a strong following among the millions of adult smokers. The electronic cigarettes company was established by former smokers who wanted a world where there’s minimal cigarette use. To do that, they designed a device that’s thin, streamlined, and comes with an intelligent heating mechanism. Juul’s classy look and large variety of flavors have helped the company reach a $16 billion valuation.
What’s exciting is the number of tech startups that have joined the golden herd. There are reportedly 81 new unicorns this year. And,according to PitchBook, 35 US startups joined the unicorn class in 2018.
During the last generation, many games were built using Unreal Engine 3. For the current generation, Epic Games hopes developers will switch over to its new middleware – Unreal Engine 4. We’ve already seen the engine in action a few times in the past using Epic’s own real time demos, but it became available to all at GDC. To sell developers on its latest technology, Epic has released a new lengthy video detailing the new features in Unreal Engine 4.
In its latest demo, Epic Games goes over some of the newest features to hit Unreal Engine 4. One of the biggest new features is its ease of us. In other words, developers will have an easier time than ever when it comes to creating environments. Developers need merely drop in the asset, size it up and and it will appear in the environment. Applying textures is just as easy since developers need only select a surface, click a texture asset and apply it to said surface.
One of the neater aspects of Unreal Engine 4 is that it can recognize material types and can react accordingly to changes in the environment. In the demo, we’re treated to orbs made of ice, wood and metal. When shot with fire, the orb of ice melts, the wood catches on fire and the metal turns red hot. These reactions are programmed into the engine and do not require additional coding on the part of developers.
So, why should gamers care about this? While the technical aspects may go over your head for now, it represents a sizable leap forward in development. These tools will make it easier and faster for developers to get games out the door to you – the players. The games built with Unreal Engine 4 will also look much better so those who invest a lot into visuals will not be disappointed.
As for those who are thinking about getting into game design, Unreal Engine 4 is also much easier to use than previous iterations. It’s also incredibly cheap as the entire engine is now available to developers for $19 a month.
Despite all the hype, we still have yet to really see a game take advantage of Unreal Engine 4. All we have are the few tech demos that Epic Games have made for it. As we head deeper into the next generation of consoles, however, that’s going to change as more games are built with UE4 in mind. To that end, Epic Games has been detailing some of the improvements its new engine brings to the table.
In the latest video, Epic Games talks about something that’s very near and dear to many gamers’ hearts – explosions. Here’s what you should expect to see:
Epic’s Francois Antoine and Zak Parrish give a behind-the-scenes look into the Infiltrator real-time demonstration to show how artists can build a 3D volume texture explosion using Unreal Engine 4 technology.
Remember that scene from Independence Day when the explosion rips through a tunnel almost killing Will Smith’s wife, son and dog? With Unreal Engine 4, we’ll finally be able to see explosions like this in-game. As fan of explosions, this is incredibly exciting for me as a gamer. It must be even more exciting for developers building the next-generation of explosion-based action games.
The first Unreal Engine 4 game hitting consoles is procedurally generated horror game Daylight on PS4 and PC. It will probably be light on the explosions, but it will give gamers a taste of what the engine is capable of when it launches in April.
Gears of War was the first game on the Xbox 360 to really feel next-gen when it launched in 2006. Epic’s intimate knowledge of Unreal Engine 3 combined with the power of the Xbox 360 helped to make the console look much better in comparison to the just launched PS3. Now after four games, Microsoft is finally making sure it can continue to use Gears of War as a benchmark franchise going forward.
Microsoft announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Epic Games to purchase the Gears of War IP from the developer. While Microsoft published the first four games in the franchise, it never actually owned the IP. Under those conditions, Epic Games could have easily made a new entry in the franchise for a competing platform. With Microsoft now owning the franchise, it can ensure that Gears of War stays an Xbox exclusive.
“Epic Games has reached an agreement to sell the ‘Gears of War’ intellectual property rights to Microsoft. We’re very proud of the franchise we built in close partnership with Microsoft over the past decade and are happy that this agreement enables Microsoft to forge ahead with the ‘Gears’ universe on their industry-leading platforms as Epic concentrates its efforts on new projects,” said Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. “Epic remains totally dedicated to supporting Xbox One and is licensing the Unreal Engine 4 technology to Microsoft in support of their future projects.”
With Microsoft now owning the franchise, is Epic Games still going to develop the games going forward? The studio says it will continue to offer support on Unreal Engine 4 usage, but main development duties will now go to newly formed Black Tusk Studios in Vancouver. It may be a brand new studio, but Microsoft claims to have staffed it with all-star talent, including Rod Fergusson.
Now that Microsoft owns both Gears of War and Halo, we can probably expect to see the two franchises receive new entries on the Xbox One every other year. We already know Halo 5 is in development, so we’ll probably see that first. As for the next Gears of War, we’re told we’ll hear something later this year.
Unreal Engine is pretty amazing, but it’s often utilized by teams with terrible art direction. That’s why this last generation saw so many Unreal games that looked like they were populated by plastic army men. With Unreal Engine 4, Epic has already shown how its new engine will make space marines look less like toys, but it still hasn’t made anything that looks too terribly different from the usual brown and gray space marine games that dominate the industry.
In an attempt to show what Unreal Engine 4 is truly capable of, developer Anton Migulko has emerged with a new tech demo that shows off an arctic landscape rendered in the new Unreal Development Kit. What we get is an excellent demonstration of what Unreal Engine 4 can do for realistic natural environments. The water looks absolutely fabulous, and the snowy landscapes are awe inspiring.
It should be noted that this is simply a tech demo. This isn’t a game, but merely a proof of concept. Still, it does inspire hope that developers will move away from the dark gray shooters of years past into a world where games actually have color and variety. It’s been too long since video games actually looked like video games. With some solid art design, Unreal Engine 4 could kickstart a revolution in in-game visuals.
On Sunday night, Nvidia announced its latest mobile graphics chip – the Tegra K1. The company boasts that it’s the first 64-bit Android processor that makes use of its desktop Kepler graphics technology to deliver cutting edge visuals on mobile devices.
To help prove this point, Nvidia teamed up with Epic Games to get Unreal Engine 4 running on the Tegra K1. Now, it should be noted that Unreal Engine 4 was built with next-gen consoles and PC in mind. To get it running on mobile seems like it would be an arduous task considering that it took Epic almost a decade to get Unreal Engine 3 running on mobile devices.
While that may have been a concern in years past, Epic Games and Nvidia both claim that the Tegra K1 pushes mobile graphics technology forward by at least four years. This massive upgrade in power allows developers to do things previously thought impossible on mobile, like support for DirectX 11 and tessellation. This also allows Epic Games to get Unreal Engine 4 running on mobile devices without making any compromises.
Check it out:
The first Tegra K1 devices will be available early this year.
With the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One behind us, we can now focus on the upcoming games for both systems. While most of the launch games used tools from last generation game development, we’re probably going to see more and more games use the all new Unreal Engine 4 going forward.
So, what can you expect from the latest iteration of Epic’s award winning game engine? Aside from better looking games, you can expect Unreal Engine 4 to provide developers with better special effects tools. In the below video, you’ll see a live demo of of the engine being used to better reflect how particle effects will be affected by the world around them. You’ll also get to see how water effects will be handed in the next gen engine.
While there haven’t been many games made in Unreal Engine 4 just yet, the prevalence of Unreal Engine 3 in the last generation means that we’ll be seeing plenty of games built in Unreal Engine 4. That means that games built for next gen consoles will not only be pretty, but they will perform well too.
Today’s big Apple iPhone presentation was notable for being far from surprising. Nearly all of the leaks and rumors floating around about the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C were proven true this afternoon. One of the only surprises of the conference was when Donald Mustard, co-founder of video game developer ChAIR, took to the stage.
Mustard announced that Infinity Blade III will be launching on September 18 alongside iOS 7. The game features better visuals and new “ClashMob” modes, along with the new campaign. As for the story, it’s description is best left up to that game’s creators, who have crafted quite an intricate lore for the Infinity Blade series.
Here’s one description, from the Epic blog announcement:
Infinity Blade III sees Siris return to action for a final showdown against the Worker of Secrets, who has gathered an army of Deathless Titans and seeks the destruction of the entire world. But Siris won’t have to fight this battle alone. Isa, Siris’s stealthy female companion from Infinity Blade II, is now a playable character for IB3. She offers a different style of fighting – quick and nimble – and comes equipped with a crossbow she uses to damage enemies before leaping into battle.
The game will obviously run best on the upcoming iPhone 5S, which Apple today touted as a graphics powerhouse. The new device will feature a 64-bit processor that should run Infinity Blade III more smoothly than the iPhone 5C or iPhone 4S.
Epic Games made one heck of a splash with Unreal Engine 4. The next-generation engine has already proven its worth with two amazingtech demos that make the wait for the next-generation that much harder to bear.
Of course, it’s easy to forget that the next generation is already here with CryEngine 3. Crysis 3, at least on the PC, is a technical marvel. Now one company has taken CyEngine 3 and crafted one of the prettiest tech demos you’ll ever see.
From Enodo, a firm that designs “virtual realities for real life business applications,” comes this real-time demo that simulates multiple environments from the African plains to a busy urban center. Check it out:
Regardless of the engine, the future of next-gen games looks bright, and very pretty. Let’s just hope game designers start to use a bit more color in their games from now on though. Unreal Engine has already proven that it can do browns, but a little blue or green never hurt anyone.
The next-generation of game consoles is quickly approaching, but there are some who claim that we don’t need new hardware. The argument usually focuses on how there’s still ways to squeeze more power out of the current generation of consoles, and how games still haven’t reached their full potential.
At GDC 2013, Epic Games smashed that argument to bits with its latest real-time demo of Unreal Engine 4. The technology on display just isn’t currently possible on existing consoles, and it’s exciting to think what developers will do with it once they have the power to do so.
The most exciting part about this tech demo is that it’s running on currently available PC hardware. Epic confirmed that the demo was running on a single, unmodified Nvidia GTX 680. So, we know that Unreal games built on the PC will look great, but it will be interesting to see how the engine works with the AMD hardware in the PS4 and next Xbox.
For the longest time, HTML5 was far behind Flash in terms of game development as it didn’t offer a native experience. Mozilla and others have been bridging that gap over the last year, however, and the non-profit’s latest move inspires more hope that HTML5 can deliver native gaming experiences sooner rather than later.
Mozilla and Epic Games announced at GDC that Unreal Engine 3 is now available to HTML5 developers. The epic achievement (pun so intended) was made possible through Mozilla’s work in developing “a highly-optimized version of JavaScript” that allows game developers to bring graphically intensive content to the Web.
To see it in action for yourself, check out this quick run through of Epic Citadel running on a Web browser:
It’s Mozilla’s hope that developers will use this to bring more visually striking, and maybe even AAA games, to the Web. Of course, HTML5 is still in its infancy and developer adoption is low. Still, it’s incredibly encouraging to see HTML5 progressing this fast especially when Flash only just got Unreal Engine 3 support at last year’s GDC.
For 1600 Microsoft Points ($20), gamers will get two DLC packs that will be made up of six multiplayer maps, two new multiplayer modes, and exclusive armor and weapon skins. Purchasers of the Season Pass will also get early access to new multiplayer maps.
In addition to this in-game content, Epic will be offering Season Pass subscribers a permanent multiplayer XP boost.
The junk-food extra XP tie-ins for shooters such as Halo were sketchy, but were limited by their physical nature and limited-time offers. Weekend XP bonuses don’t discriminate among players who don’t have extra cash to spend on DLC. Paying for this permanent double XP offer is, according to Epic, a way “to accelerate your ascent through the ranks.”
That’s the way Epic is promoting it, at least. Another way to look at it would be to say that players who don’t pony up a $20 tribute will only earn half XP.
True, extra XP in this case may not confer any winning advantages (unless you consider being a high rank winning), but regardless of whether Judgment‘s XP boost amounts to a pay-to-win scenario, it’s another in a long line of incremental DLC offers that are moving in that direction. While these types offerings are normal and accepted in low-cost mobile games and free-to-play games, seeing them pop up for AAA, $60 console titles is more than a bit disconcerting.
