theverge.com

donuts, do games w Epic Games just won its antitrust lawsuit against Google again

A jury saw secret revenue sharing deals between Google, smartphone makers, and game developers. The jury saw internal emails between Google execs that suggested Google was scared of how Epic might convince its fellow game developers to join or create rival app stores, creating unwanted competition for Google.

Fuck Epic and all that, but a silver lining that this has bubbled up because of it

Pika,
@Pika@sh.itjust.works avatar

honestly, my opinion of epic is starting to improve more and more with every legal case they open., It’s about time someone with money stepped up.

They are bringing what everyone knew was going on into official record and forcing countries to do something about it. I’m rooting for em

zuch0698o,

Don’t fall for the trap. It’s one billionaire mad at the other. Epic has alot of puff but no real pazzaz for their store.

acosmichippo,
@acosmichippo@lemmy.world avatar

it’s also bankrolled by Tencent.

dubyakay,

Is that a bad thing?

acosmichippo, (edited )
@acosmichippo@lemmy.world avatar

depends how much chinese influence you want in the gaming market. They are already the biggest gaming company in the world.

It’s also a bit hypotritical for chinese companies to be suing US companies for antitrust laws when the Chinese government outright bans app stores like Steam and Google Play in their own country. They get to have their cake and eat it too, then use all the money they make in china to push out further into the world economy.

Ashtear,

depends how much chinese influence you want in the gaming market.

There’s no stopping that train now, Tencent or no.

Traditional devs need to be ready to compete, and breaking up monopolies makes for a market more prepared to do so.

Stovetop,

Traditional devs need to be ready to compete

I think that is the problem, though. The Chinese market is inherently anti-competitive.

Ashtear,

The domestic market can be, and even that depends on your perspective. For example, China doesn’t have the insane Disney copyright regime the West has that artificially suppresses competition.

Competing in the domestic Chinese market is another conversation entirely, as right now, for video games, China has to come to us. The remnants of insular, planned economy only get you so far when you’re trying to build soft power and expand into foreign markets.

Stovetop,

The issue though is that Chinese companies have the ability to tap into the massive domestic market in China in addition to international markets, while non-Chinese companies are locked out of the Chinese market unless their Chinese competitors get a cut. So the Chinese developers who get that additional profit from domestic Chinese players end up with a lot more financial weight to throw around than non-Chinese developers, who easily end up getting bought out or pushed out.

paraphrand,

Yeah. Tim just wants his shitty App Store in more places so he can make his own anti competitive deals to force people to use it.

If the Epic Games store was a great feature rich platform on PC, Mac and Linux, then I would be inclined to take him at his word. But they have been running it for how many years? And it’s still bare bones and not offering anything compelling apart from subsidized free games.

greenskye,

I wish more people could recognize you can support specific actions without liking or approving of the entity taking those actions. It’s not a binary choice.

acosmichippo,
@acosmichippo@lemmy.world avatar

in this case, the specific action gives the entity an unfair advantage in the global market. Epic (with help from tencent) is suing US companies for antitrust laws, but tencent benefits from exactly that with stores like Steam and Google play outright banned in china. They have the entire chinese market to themselves and use the profit from that to push out further into the global market by doing stuff exactly like this.

silentdon,

Any benefit to you is incidental to them trying to make a profit. Don’t be fooled into thinking they are fighting for you.

acosmichippo,
@acosmichippo@lemmy.world avatar

Epic is ~40% owned by Tencent which is a chinese company that directly benefits from Chinese Governement sponsored monopolies. China legally banned US based stores like Steam and Google Play.

Epic is not here to do you favors, they are here to push Tencent and China’s global agenda.

artyom,

It's sad that any of this was ever allowed to happen in the first place, and that it took a giant corporation to break it up. This shit should have been stomped out 20 years ago when it was beginning.

Adalast,

All Valve would have to do is announce that they would be making sale and install of mobile games and apps through the Steam App and the entire industry would shit the bed.

Omega_Jimes, do games w Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit

I like the idea that they approached Sony about making a Horizon game but Sony said no and they were like "Oh, well, this game is coming out…

NigelFrobisher, do games w Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit

They’re mad because they wanted to do that first by releasing Ubisoft style annual instalments.

_cryptagion, do games w Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit

I might be convinced to care just a small, tiny, minuscule amount if it was an indie game. But a corporation like Sony? They can get fucked hard and often with a chainsaw, for all I care.

Blackmist, do games w Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit

That is Aldi levels of copying right there.

FunnyUsername,
@FunnyUsername@lemmy.world avatar

i hope this is a compliment because i love Aldi’s take on foods

Outwit1294, do games w Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit

They are Chinese, what did you expect?

hal_5700X, do games w Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit
CatDogL0ver, do games w Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit

Sony is that petty.

Sony is suing a game dev because their name is “Naughty Cat” which, according to Sony , infringes on Sony studio “Naughty Dog.”

pyre, do games w Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit

i don’t give a shit? doom had like a thousand clones; guess what, doom is still a household name and most of the clones are long forgotten. some good ones made their own name and following.

unless there’s outright stolen assets or code, or they’re using a deliberately confusing name, i don’t care. if it’s a slavish clone as you say, there’s nothing to worry about.

it would be one thing if horizon was this underdog game made by a couple people and has largely gone under the radar then yeah it would suck. but fuck me no one’s mistaking another game for horizon zero dawn.

MBech,

You’re right. Us, the consumers, will only ever benefit from more competition for our money. Also, the people who wanted to buy Horizon already did, if they like the theme and playstyle they may also buy this other one, but it’s not like Horizon is losing buyers on this.

SomethingBurger,

DOOM clones weren’t literal clones called HELL where you play as the Hell Man killing demons with the Large Heckin’ Pistol.

pyre,

i don’t think you’re remembering things well or maybe you played the popular ones. there was a bunch of doom clones that barely tried to be something different. lots of w3d clones too. also this game isn’t called Orion: Null sunrise so your “HELL” example is a bit unwarranted.

MotoAsh,

Yes, and all analogies have to be exactly applicable to carry wisdom, too…

Must be nice having a brain of mush.

pyre,

this is coming from the genius who doesn’t get how name similarity is relevant in IP disputes… it’s not about being exact, Einstein, that’s a very specific issue that this game doesn’t engage in.

MotoAsh,

You’re the one calling their “HELL” example inaccurate, you fucking mushbrain.

pyre,

i said unwarranted, you illiterate buffoon.

MotoAsh,

Yes, and thusly demonstrating you’re too dumb to understand the basic concept of hyperbole or analogy. Thank you for further proving it.

pyre,

you can’t read.

MotoAsh,

The irnoy…, it’s palpable… Have fun wallowing in your ignorance. I will not suffer your pathetic sealioning any longer.

pyre,

oh god please stop. now you’re saying words you don’t understand. and you’re doing it with dramatic pauses and shit. this is too much. please stop embarrassing yourself.

WraithGear,
@WraithGear@lemmy.world avatar

Painkiller is that you?

prole,

I mean… I feel like there were games exactly like this

topherclay,

Yeah they were called CHEX QUEST and it was awesome.

samus12345,
@samus12345@sh.itjust.works avatar

Chex Quest was officially licensed.

tacosanonymous,

I mostly agree. And honestly, maybe one of these games will be more interesting if there’s some competition.

callouscomic, do games w Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit
A7thStone,

Wow! I didn’t realize Sony invented sweeping vistas and giant creatures.

derin,
@derin@lemmy.beru.co avatar

I think it’s because of the colors used, visual theme, mecha nature of the enemies, and character design of the protagonists - too many direct similarities to argue it’s just inspiration.

callouscomic,

I am a huge fan of the original. It did not take long for the trailer to seem like a Horizon game, and then it was clear it was a watered down ripoff. Agreed the similarities are way too obvious.

In the trailer there’s clearly some new things and different creatures Horizon doesn’t have, but the stylistic nature of it all is so damn similar.

samus12345,
@samus12345@sh.itjust.works avatar

They might have been able to get away with it if they didn’t use giant mechanical creatures. That’s pretty distinct.

Pyr_Pressure,
@Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca avatar

Eh, it’s unique but I don’t think that should give Sony the right to use the exclusively (looking at you Nintendo and Pokemon)

You could have the exact same game but with fleshy dinosaurs and all of a sudden it’s not a problem? And then a third company can come out with another copy with fleshy dinosaurs and there’s no issue because fleshy dinosaurs aren’t unique.

SkunkWorkz,

It’s not that they used animal mechs. It’s that the style of the mechs are very close to that of Horizon. Sony has copyright on the design, not on the idea.

Psythik,

deleted_by_moderator

  • Loading...
  • prole,

    To be fair, there have been a few great Chinese AAA games lately. And the Chinese are far from the only ones who steal IP

    criss_cross,

    Ooh yeah that’s a bit much.

    Games are gonna copy major mechanics. Look at all the BOTW clones that came out after Breath of the Wild was successful. But you have to put a liiiittle effort into mixing up the art style and color palette.

    samus12345,
    @samus12345@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Surprised they didn’t call it Light of Noziroh.

    MentalEdge, do games w Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit
    @MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

    Oh wow that is A LOT more similar than I was thinking.

    zecg, do games w Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit
    @zecg@lemmy.world avatar

    Loved Horizon, so I clicked on an open world gameplay trailer and it’s just survivalslop, fiddling with some shit-producing hovels to get them upgraded to shit+1-producing hovels and hitting trees until they’re planks.

    DeusUmbra, do games w Sony calls Tencent game ‘slavish clone’ of Horizon in new lawsuit

    Whaaaat? A Chinese company making a knock-off of another product? You don’t say.

    TheOctonaut,

    abduct Chinese paper makers, imprison them, steal the technology

    sneak into China, impersonate religious figures, hide silkworms on your person, sell to a Roman emperor

    sail into China, pretend to be a botanist. Steal tea and grow it in your starving colonies instead of food

    “Why don’t China care about western patents and copyright?”

    DeusUmbra,

    Good ole “what aboutism”

    TheOctonaut,

    We used to just call that “pointing out hypocrisy” before Americans found a thought terminating phrase for it

    MellowYellow13,

    Only US is allowed to invade other countries and steal what it wants

    DeusUmbra,

    No, pointing out hypocrisy would be going “hey, didn’t you also blatantly rip off a popular product? Isn’t it hypocritical for you to criticize them for something you also have done?” What Aboutism is defined as: “the rhetorical practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counteraccusation, by asking a different but related question, or by raising a different issue altogether. Whataboutism often serves to reduce the perceived plausibility or seriousness of the original accusation or question by suggesting that the person advancing it is hypocritical or that the responder’s misbehavior is not unique or unprecedented.” www.britannica.com/topic/whataboutism

    TheOctonaut,

    And, as always, it is in the sealion’s power to determine what is the same, and what is “different but related”.

    Arf arf arf

    DeusUmbra,

    deleted_by_moderator

  • Loading...
  • TheOctonaut,

    It’s not redirecting the conversation to respond to your statement that whataboutism is when the hypocrisy is “unrelated”. Which conveniently lets you decide what is related or unrelated.

    Do you not consider Russians human?

    DeusUmbra,

    deleted_by_moderator

  • Loading...
  • abbotsbury,
    @abbotsbury@lemmy.world avatar

    yikes, cool it with the dehumanization honey, it’s not a good look

    DeusUmbra,

    deleted_by_moderator

  • Loading...
  • abbotsbury,
    @abbotsbury@lemmy.world avatar

    Listen to how they talk about Ukrainians

    Oh, they wouldn’t happen to be calling them orks now, would they? That would be terrible.

    Judging an ethnic group by their non-democratic government is prejudice, you are prejudiced. Now please continue to justify your racism like everyone else before you.

    DeusUmbra,

    deleted_by_moderator

  • Loading...
  • abbotsbury,
    @abbotsbury@lemmy.world avatar

    sure jan

    makeshiftreaper,

    You’re citing examples from the 6th, 4th, and 18th centuries and arguably the last one isn’t even about intellectual property

    Even ignoring the blatant “what aboutism” if your justification for why it’s ok to steal video game ideas is because some Byzantians were mean to you 1400 years ago just know that nobody is going to take you seriously

    TheOctonaut,

    If you think that historical context doesnt inform culture, you must be an American, in possession of neither.

    DeusUmbra,

    So, you’re saying that it is the Chinese culture to steal from others because they were stolen from? That sounds racist as hell.

    TheOctonaut,

    No, but this might shock you, other countries have different definitions of what theft is. Theft is taking something from someone.

    The funny part being that it is literally enshrined in American law that game mechanics can’t be copyrighted, so its not even in the definition of theft in America either.

    prole,

    I mean… this guy does have a point.

    DeusUmbra,

    Game mechanics can be Patented in the US, just look at the Nemesis system.

    Also, just because a country decides that their definition of a thing is different than everyone else’s, doesn’t make it correct. Just look at Russia, they have so many different forms of lying to justify lying in everyday life, but that doesn’t make corruption OK.

    On top of that, you were the one who defended this fairly blatant plagiarism by pointing to examples of theft.

    CatDogL0ver, (edited )

    What are you talking about? Is this a bot?

    DeusUmbra,

    deleted_by_moderator

  • Loading...
  • TheOctonaut,

    “Issues with westerners” is an odd choice given that I’m Irish but ok.

    It’s not my job to comfort American fragility. Genocide enablers are fair targets in all situations.

    Goodeye8,

    Genocide enablers are fair targets in all situations.

    So what's your issue with people going after China? After all it's fair game because China is also a genocide enabler.

    TheOctonaut,

    I have no issue with people going after China. I’m not a hexbear/ml stooge. It is possible for two things to be bad. It is possible for something about a bad entity to be neutral or at least unsurprising. Which is how I would describe China’s lack of real interest in engaging with, from their perspective, the global order’s new fad interest in intellectual property rights.

    Goodeye8,

    Then you should've made that argument instead of arguing that it's justified because centuries ago something was stolen from them.

    But I'm not sure how you got the impression China has no interest in engaging with the IP rights when last year they filed more IPs than anyone else in the world.

    TheOctonaut,

    Explained is not the same as justified.

    I would have thought this was obvious but forcing your rivals to abide by their own rules while flouting them yourself is not an endorsement of those rules, it’s a mockery of them.

    Goodeye8,

    Explaining means you actually explain your point instead of throwing out random examples of others doing something similar and then mockingly asking "I wonder why they wouldn't care".

    You also seem to be moving the goal post with every post. You said China doesn't care to engage in IP fad, I showed China absolutely does engage in it. Now you're saying of course they do because they flount the rules themselves. Actually they don't. A few years ago Beijing IP court decided a Chinese artist had to pay around half a million to a Belgian artist for plagiarizing his work. I guess you're about to find another excuse to shift the goal post once again.

    TheOctonaut,

    You think I’m going to shift the goalposts for one example? Ok, yeah that definitely overrules literally decades of behaviour. You win. Here’s your Internet reward for the best argument. ⭐️

    Goodeye8,

    You mean decades of behavior of which you so far haven't presented even a single one. Guess what, one example is better than 0 examples.

    TheOctonaut,

    You want examples of Chinese companies disregarding copyright? Uh.

    www.aliexpress.com? Or, yknow, the actual article we’re commenting on?

    Goodeye8,

    I was expecting something where the Chinese IP courts rule in favor of breaking IP laws or at the very least turn a blind eye. This current article doesn't count because there's no resolution here. As for AliExpress, they have an entire process in place to handle IP infringement and they actually ban sellers off the platform if they continue infringing.

    DeusUmbra,

    So, wait, Namco are Genocide enablers? Since when?

    Also, my guy, I’ve met plenty of Tankies in my life, it’s not uncommon to see a westerner that hates westerners.

    CatDogL0ver,

    So many bots nowadays on Reddit. I won’t be surprised we have bots here

    Megaman_EXE, do gaming w Nintendo’s Zelda movie has found its princess and hero of time [Bo Bragason and Benjamin Evan]

    Live action seems like such a weird choice for this

    tatterdemalion, do gaming w Nintendo’s Zelda movie has found its princess and hero of time [Bo Bragason and Benjamin Evan]
    @tatterdemalion@programming.dev avatar

    Wait is there actually a Zelda movie happening? I feel like I’ve heard of intentions to make a Zelda movie for 20 years.

  • Wszystkie
  • Subskrybowane
  • Moderowane
  • Ulubione
  • test1
  • FromSilesiaToPolesia
  • NomadOffgrid
  • krakow
  • fediversum
  • muzyka
  • rowery
  • tech
  • healthcare
  • esport
  • m0biTech
  • Psychologia
  • Technologia
  • niusy
  • MiddleEast
  • ERP
  • Gaming
  • Spoleczenstwo
  • sport
  • informasi
  • turystyka
  • Cyfryzacja
  • Blogi
  • shophiajons
  • retro
  • Travel
  • warnersteve
  • Radiant
  • Wszystkie magazyny