Epic Games' Fortnite may have been removed from both Apple and Google app stores for the foreseeable future. However, it's DC FanDome this week and the company has teamed up with Warner Bros. to bring a new DC Comics supervillain bundle including The Joker to Fortnite.
You'll be able to download the new The Last Laugh bundle (affiliate link) for £24.99 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch through Fortnite's in-game store or as a physical copy from retailers this November. “It will also arrive in time for the release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X next-generation consoles,” Epic Games said. The company has previously worked with Marvel Comics.
With regards to the app store lawsuit. “For players on mobile and PC platforms, we've got you covered,” the Fortnite creator said. “We'll share how you'll be able to purchase the Fortnite: The Last Laugh Bundle soon.”
Stay tuned for further Fortnite and DC FanDome coverage.
In the midst of a global pandemic a new Fortnite season is heralded by a stage-managed spat between Epic Games, Apple and Google, which has divided gamers following the removal of Fortnite from the tech titans' app stores due to the company bypassing storefronts and a 30% charge.
“Apple’s removal of Fortnite is yet another example of Apple flexing its enormous power in order to impose unreasonable restraints and unlawfully maintain its 100% monopoly over the iOS in-app payment processing market,” the company said in a statement.
Epic Games released a parody of Apple's 1984 commercial directed by Ridley Scott (Alien).
Whilst some commentators have suggested it's a David and Goliath battle, Epic Games has profited hugely from the runaway success of Fortnite, a $200 million dollar investment from Sony and licensing its Unreal Engine for use in video games and productions including Disney+ live-action Star Wars series, The Mandalorian.
“We applaud Epic Games’ decision to take a stand against Apple and shed further light on Apple’s abuse of its dominant position,” a Spotify spokesperson said late on Thursday. “Apple’s unfair practices have disadvantaged competitors and deprived consumers for far too long. The stakes for consumers and app developers large and small couldn’t be higher and ensuring that the iOS platform [Apple’s operating system] operates competitively and fairly is an urgent task with far-reaching implications.”
The coronavirus pandemic has seen Apple's sales increase exponentially with the iPhone SE (I finally moved over to iOS devices full-time when the new model was launched earlier this year) being the biggest beneficiary. xCloud, Microsoft's upcoming streaming service free for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers (myself included), won't be available at launch. Clearly, a battle royale is in the making courtesy of clever marketing with Facebook entering the fray.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to finish streaming season one of Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet, an acerbic video game industry satire, on Apple TV+.
Apple Arcade is coming to macOS, iOS, iPadOS and tvOS beginning on iOS 13 devices 19th September in 150 countries.
The Cupertino-based company's new offering is akin to Xbox Game Pass and is not a direct competitor to Google Stadia launching in November. Incidentally, I recently upgraded to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (with an extra 12-months free), for Gears 5 early access, so cancelled my Stadia Founder's Edition pre-order.
Apple has signed deals with third-party developers including Lego, Konami and Sega. The fine folks at Sega contacted me to announce ChuChu Rocket Universe. ChuChu Rocket was originally released for the Dreamcast, twenty years ago, and was a free mail-away:
"20 years after ChuChu Rocket! invaded the Dreamcast and became the very first online multiplayer experience, the ChuChus are back in a brand-new episode. The storyline is new, but the objective for players remains the same: help all the ChuChus escape by placing directional arrows that lead them to their space rocket. In multiplayer, the objective for players is to help more ChuChus escape than their competitors. Using very creative methods to win is absolutely compulsory.
ChuChu Rocket! Universe will be available exclusively on Apple Arcade."
Confirmed titles for Apple Arcade include:
Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree
Ballistic Baseball
Beyond a Steel Sky
Cardpocalypse
ChuChu Rocket Universe
Doomsday Vault
Down in Bermuda
Enter the Construct
Exit the Gungeon
Frogger in Toy Town
HitchHiker
Hot Lava
Kings of the Castle
Lego Arthouse
Lego Brawls
Lifelike
Monomals
Mr. Turtle
No Way Home
Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm
Overland
Pac-Man Party Royale
Projection: First Light
Rayman Mini
Repair
Shayonara Wild Hearts
Shantae and the Seven Sirens
Shinsekai: Into the Depths
Skate City
Sneaky Sasquatch
Sonic Racing
Spidersaurs
Steven Universe: Unleash the Light
Super Impossible Road
The Bradwell Conspiracy
The Enchanted World
The Pathless
UFO on Tape: First Contact
Various Daylife
Where Cards Fall
Winding Worlds
Yaga
Apple Arcade will cost £4.99/$4.99 per month with a free 1-month trial for new members.
Will you be subscribing? Were you hoping for the AAA titles available on Stadia? Let me know in the comments below.
E3, the electronic entertainment expo, officially begins this weekend. However, companies are increasingly making major announcements ahead of the annual event and this year is no exception.
In a week where Apple announced official support for Xbox and PlayStation controllers, on compatible devices from the fall, during the Cupertino-based company's World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC). Google has released new details for Stadia, the Alphabet subsidiary's streaming gaming service, and begun taking pre-orders for a November launch in the US, Canada, Europe and the UK.
Early adopters have an opportunity to own a Stadia Founder's Edition Bundle in time for the all-important holiday season. The relatively low entry price of £119.00GBP includes a controller, a Chromecast Ultra, three months of Stadia Pro (plus a buddy pass) and Destiny 2. My pre-order is in. Thus, adding a fifth gaming platform once Apple Arcade launches. Thankfully, with far less clutter than in the seventies, eighties, nineties and noughties. A free subscription tier, Stadia Base, will be available in 2020.
To use Stadia, you'll need at least a 10Mbps internet connection, which will let you play games at 720p with stereo sound. To play games at 4K HDR 60fps with 5.1 surround sound, a 35Mbps internet connection will be required. This has caused controversy for folks with data caps. It's worth noting this isn't Netflix for games (like PS Now or Xbox Game Pass) and you can't download for local play.
Stadia is not the first cloud-based video game streaming service. OnLive launched in 2010 to much fanfare and closed in 2015. Google's platform has support from third-party developers such as EA, Ubisoft and Sega but there's no news (yet) on exclusives from those publishers. Launch games include Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Google is a disruptive force, with a history of shuttering services, and video game incumbents Microsoft and Sony are making pre-emptive moves to counter the threat to their duopoly. The competing companies have already announced a strategic partnership for xCloud services based on Microsoft Azure, greater third-party crossplay compatibility - good news for all gamers - Remote Play and a controller tie-in with Apple ahead of Apple Arcade. Who knows what Microsoft will announce during its E3 press briefing to counter Google this Sunday.
What a time to be a gamer, eh? Getting Google Stadia or couldn't care less? Let me know in the comments below.
The new Star Wars movie is now finished, according to The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams, and Google's getting in on the act with officially authorised app customisations and a very cool scroll when you search "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...".
The search results are not the easiest to read. But, that's missing the point and such a fun easter egg is going to amuse fans (myself included).
So far the unreleased Star Wars movie has taken an estimated $50 million at the box office in advance ticket sales. Have you bought yours? Let me know in the comments below.
All Star Wars, all the time, anywhere? There's an app for that.
The Star Wars app is your official mobile connection to a galaxy far, far away. With a dynamic interface, the Star Wars app immerses you in breaking news, rich media, social updates, special events, and interactive features.
The new app is available for Android and iOS devices. Download now.
NOW TV has quietly updated its iOS and Android apps with support for Google Chromecast. The first I learnt of this was when updating NOW TV for iPad earlier today.
This doesn't displace the NOW TV Box (based on a Roku LT) for streaming catch up services, but does add another option for subscribers who own a Chromecast device.
@blindpete has pointed out Chromecast will use one of only four device slots linked to your NOW TV account.
ITV Encore is now available to Entertainment Month Pass subscribers at no additional cost! You'll be able to watch Poirot, Prey, The Widower, Monroe, Mr. Selfridge S2 and the final series of Whitechapel.
Why not sign up for an Entertainment Month Pass and get a £5 Asda voucher? New subscribers only. Offer good through 30th September.
February 13, 2011, Barcelona, Spain – Sony Ericsson today announced the game-changing Xperia Play, the latest phone in its Xperia range of Android-based smartphones.
Xperia Play delivers the smartphone functionality that the most serious power users could need, teamed with the immersive gaming experience that any gamer would want.
In portrait mode, the Android smartphone offers all the benefits that users have come to expect from Sony Ericsson’s existing range of Xperia smartphones with best-in-class entertainment experiences, a great 5 megapixel camera, a brilliant 4” multi-touch screen and great social networking features.
However, slide out the gaming control and users enter a new world of immersive mobile gaming. The slide out game pad reveals a digital D pad, two analogue touch pads, two shoulder buttons and the four PlayStation icons: circle, cross, square and triangle. Qualcomm’s optimized Snapdragon processor with a 1Ghz CPU and embedded Adreno GPU graphics processor deliver silky smooth 60fps play-back 3D mobile gaming and Web browsing with minimal power consumption so Xperia Play users can enjoy long hours of battery life and game time.
Following months of developer builds. Yesterday Google released its much-anticipated, and hyped, Chrome browser (not to be confused with Chrome OS) for Mac. However, it only runs on Intel-based machines running Mac OS X 10.5 or later. So, PowerPC users are left out in the cold.
Currently in beta (what Google product isn't?), Chrome for Mac almost matches the Windows version point-to-point. The main omissions are bookmark management and extensions! This isn't a potential deal-breaker, and Google assures users that a future update will add these features.
As would be expected with a browser based on WebKit (see Safari), Chrome is lightweight, nimble and silky smooth. Firefox (my current default browser), in contrast, is slow and resource-hungry: so much so that leaving too many tabs open, for long periods, results in system-wide unresponsiveness (that's certainly been my experience).
View Google Chrome for Mac as a sandboxed trial for now. Go play...
If you subscribe to this blog by RSS, please make sure you update the RSS feed to the new address - I have implemented 30 day redirection! If you're not already a subscriber, subscribing won't cost you a thing and you'll never miss another blog post again! I even include my Flickr photostream and podcasts too!
Although you can subscribe to this blog using feed readers such as Google Reader, My Yahoo! or Newsgator. Why not subscribe by email or Mac OS X Dashboard Widget?
It can't have escaped anyone's attention that today ushers in the new Apple iPhone 3G!
To insulate myself from indulging in an act of rampant consumerism (thereby reinforcing the status quo). I've kept clear of Apple Store Princesshay and the O2 Shop, Exeter! Not that there was any real cause for concern...
In a deliciously ironic twist (as noted by Twitter peeps @marceatsworld and @babblestorm), Apple Stores were unable to process activations due to O2's online shop only 'playing nice' with IE and, well, surprisingly the Apple Stores only use Macs and Safari! D'oh! How old school is that? We're living in a so-called platform-agnostic age people! Allegedly... Ask the developers behind Google Lively if you don't believe me (requires Windows XP or Vista)!
If you did succumb to the charms of a new iPhone, please post a comment and fuel the envy! I'm cutting this post short as MobileMe continues to FailMe!
Updated with added coolness! Yesterday, in a most shocking development, my 'coolness' was cast into doubt! As a Mac-owning blogger that's unthinkable!
Danny Franks linked to this blog in his post Why I Refuse to Blog! Little did Danny know that my legion of peeps would alert me to this disturbance in the force!
I've always been a good sport and there's no such thing as bad publicity in my book! Therefore in the spirit of goodwill and Danny's subsequent genial e-mail. I'd like to sincerely wish Danny every success with his blogging (or not as the case may be)! I'll be keeping tabs. However, rest assured that blasters will be set to stun!
Special thanks to Google for ranking Generation Star Wars so highly in "Star Wars blog" searches!
It's May 1st and I need to select a winner for the mimico-sponsored 'give-away' competition! There can only be 1 mimobot Boba Fett winner! The tension is mounting, but I'll announce the winner on May 4th!
Missed out? Don't worry! I'll be running further 'give-away' contests throughout the spring and summer! Fancy winning a copy of AVPR: Aliens Vs Predator - Requiem on DVD? Then enter this competition over at horrorshare.co.uk (unless otherwise stated, I accept no responsibility for the content of any other web site, including any site which may link to or from this site).
The month of May heralds the fourth anniversary of my blogging career! And I can't think of a more auspicious way to mark this milestone than with the most recent Google PageRank algorithm update! This blog is now the beneficiary of a PR5! Absolutely awesome.
Did you enjoy Saturday's Sontaran yarn? It was good fun, and most humorous to see the diminutive potato-headed clones back in full force! The tech noir trappings of The Sontaran Stratagem were most becoming! Can't wait for the action figures!
Towards the end of 2007 there was a dramatic increase in the number of visitors to Generation Star Wars! This was due in part to a Google PageRank of 4, and that Generation Star Wars is listed on BlogBurst, a syndication service that makes premium blog content available to major international publishers such as Reuters, USA Today and Fox News.
USA Today was the first to syndicate one of my posts:-
Now it appears that Reuters is also syndicating some of my posts, giving Generation Star Wars significant exposure and introducing it to a larger readership in the process.
We all know that new iMacs are on their way today. Therefore this post will be self-indulgent and focus on the very blog that you are reading!
Blogger introduced custom domain name support in January 2007! This blog has been online for over 3 years and, somewhat belatedly, I've finally registered a domain name:
http://www.generationstarwars.com/
Redirection from http://johnhood.blogspot.com/ is automatic (what's called a 301 permanent redirect). But apologies, in advance, for any technical issues in the short-to-mid term. I've not experienced any issues using the following browsers Opera, Safari, Firefox or IE 7 (in Windows Vista Home Premium).
Subscribers to my RSS feed - powered by FeedBurner - do not have to make any changes to their subscription! Matt Shobe, at FeedBurner, confirmed that my decision to change the source feed from
http://johnhood.blogspot.com/atom.xml
to
http://www.generationstarwars.com/atom.xml
was correct. RSS goodness is uninterrupted.
I'm feverishly working on ways to minimise the impact of a domain name change on my search engine rankings - old Google PageRank was 4 (on the cusp of 5), new PageRank is 0. However, I'd encourage anyone setting up their site, who intends to blog frequently and in the longer term, to register a domain name as soon as possible! Maybe even prior to your blog going live or increased marketing activities.
Lastly, remember to create a new sitemap for your new domain and remove the existing one as Google may remove your site(s) from its search engine - duplicate content is a no, no!
Looks like there's a bug (or three) with the latest Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Beta! OneCare Tune-up appears to run correctly, but upon completion reports innumerable errors! For example an unknown error prevented Disk Fragmentation (perhaps due to Boot Camp disk partitioning). However, when I log back in, it reports that the PC status is good. Initially I assumed that my Windows Vista Home Premium installation was at fault!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this story. My OEM (original equipment manufacturer) copy of Windows Vista Home Premium is installed, via Boot Camp, on Intel-based Mac hardware and presumably is not officially supported (if someone at Microsoft would like to clarify the company's position regarding Intel-based Mac hardware, I'd be happy to post). It is worth pointing out that product activation was successful. Therefore, if you're wondering whether or not to opt for the considerably cheaper OEM edition, I'd suggest that you go ahead, your bank manager will thank you.
I decided to post a query on The Windows Experience Blog. Brandon has kindly confirmed that this issue is affecting some (if not all) PCs too. I'll await the next automated update.
Overall Windows Live OneCare neatly integrates automated anti-virus and malware protection, updates, PC performance and backup services within a single easy-to-use front-end. Think .Mac, albeit splintered, during its infancy.
I doubt if I'll be using Windows Vista Home Premium enough to justify purchasing an annual subscription once the free trial ends. Should .Mac integrate Google goodies sans subscription (as early as tomorrow's new Mac announcements and evinced by current iDisk outages), Microsoft maybe forced to review its subscription-based strategy. This would be a win-win for both Mac and Windows users.
This June the center of the Mac universe will be at Moscone West in downtown San Francisco as developers and IT professionals from around the globe come together for the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
Technically-speaking WWDC 2007 should lack the glamour of Macworld! But, this is Apple we're talking about, and everything Apple does, under the stewardship of CEO Steve Jobs, is followed with great interest by developers, consumers, and the public at large!
Here are my predictions for next week:
*New iMacs and iPods (maybe delayed until Apple Expo Paris) *iLife 07 *iWork 07 *iLife and iWork integrated into Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard *Boot Camp no longer requires reboot in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard *Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac release date announced *Blu-Ray build-to-order (BTO) option available from Apple Store *.Mac updated with Google co-branding and sans subscription
Lots of cool new applications and updates from third-party developers.
During the past week I've been unable to view any site hosted on BlogSpot! Suffice to say that I contacted my ISP, Virgin Media, to report a possible DNS issue and, initially, thought that the matter would be resolved in a timely matter. However, their Technical Support team did not follow-up my complaint via telephone or e-mail. Therefore I decided to start threads on Apple Support Discussions, Digital Spy and Google Groups.
Thankfully someone at Blogger picked up the bait and investigated the matter; there was a network issue affecting certain UK-based ISPs. A workaround is in place whilst further investigations are carried out.
Due to this negative experience with Virgin Media's Technical Support, I will no longer be recommending the company. I've already started encouraging family, friends and acquaintances, caught on the receiving end of the sky/Virgin Media battle, to switch!
And don't think of Virgin Media as the underdog! It's tantamount to Manchester United vs Chelsea FC!
Whilst perusing YouTube, now owned by Google, I found the following video, which showcases Apple TV in all its diminutive gorgeousness.
Will Apple TV combine the small footprint of the Mac mini with iPod gaming and succeed where Apple/Bandai Pippin failed? I must confess that the idea of watching streamed episodes of Doctor Who, and listening to the soundtrack, via Apple's solution, would be compelling with the addition of built-in HDD and Blu-Ray support!
Still no sign of iTunes 7.1 or Mac OS X 10.4.9! However, if the rumours are to be believed, these updates are imminent as is the advent of movie and television content in Europe!
