News from the lovely world of the Games Industry.

[Josquius]

I mean, I hate Epic and as mega-corps go I don't hate Google as much as others....
But this does sound positive.

[The Minsky Moment]

I sure hope Bethesda takes note for TES6.

Part of me kind of hopes they don't make it. Every TES game since Morrowind has gotten a little worse. Just IMO.

Skyrim>Oblivion IMO.

[Grey Fox]

I feel like seeing them split up or voluntarily shutting down whole wings of their business (like advertising) is not beyond the realm of possiblilities any more.

That would be surprising. Advertising is the only thing they can actually do for a long period of time & how they measure success of the other business endeavours.

[The Minsky Moment]

Tbh, I'm not quite clear why judges would rule in favor of Apple in one case (with the Apple platform generally being more restrictive than Android), but against Google.

Although Google filed legal motions to dispose of the case pre-trial, those motions appear to have been dropped - perhaps because Google was pursuing counterclaims against Epic and was willing to go to trial.  Google did move for judgment as a matter of law at trial and its argument relied heavily on the 2023 appeal's court decision in the Epic v. Apple case. Assuming the district judge does not disturb the verdict, Google may appeal and ask the court of appeals to overturn the verdict as contrary to law, relying on the Apple precedent.

[Valmy]

I sure hope Bethesda takes note for TES6.

Part of me kind of hopes they don't make it. Every TES game since Morrowind has gotten a little worse. Just IMO.

Skyrim>Oblivion IMO.

Oblivion did have the most evil and perverse leveling system in gaming history.

[Syt]

Tbh, I'm not quite clear why judges would rule in favor of Apple in one case (with the Apple platform generally being more restrictive than Android), but against Google.

Although Google filed legal motions to dispose of the case pre-trial, those motions appear to have been dropped - perhaps because Google was pursuing counterclaims against Epic and was willing to go to trial.  Google did move for judgment as a matter of law at trial and its argument relied heavily on the 2023 appeal's court decision in the Epic v. Apple case. Assuming the district judge does not disturb the verdict, Google may appeal and ask the court of appeals to overturn the verdict as contrary to law, relying on the Apple precedent.

Thanks for the info.

[grumbler]

I sure hope Bethesda takes note for TES6.

Part of me kind of hopes they don't make it. Every TES game since Morrowind has gotten a little worse. Just IMO.

Skyrim>Oblivion IMO.

The perception of the new game being worse is, IMO, created by the fact that we were going from fully-modded older games to unmodded newer games.  Modded Skyrim is better than Oblivion and modded Oblivion is better than Morrowind (in fact, you can play Morrowinfd in modded Oblivion).

[grumbler]

Oblivion did have the most evil and perverse leveling system in gaming history.

Mods took care of that.  I agree that, while it lasted, it was ridiculously funny for bandits in 2,000 gold piece armor trying to rob the PC of his 20 gold pieces.

[Jacob]

Do you think modded Starfield will surpass modded Skyrim?

[Jacob]

My perception is that industry wide, there's a strong push to harness and monetize UGC.

My hunch is that it will suck the soul out of the modding scene, generally speaking.

[grumbler]

Do you think modded Starfield will surpass modded Skyrim?

I'm not seeing that now, because Starfield's non-quest gameplay just isn't compelling.  There aren't all the curated open world encounters you get with Skyrim.  Maybe there will be enough quest mods to make up for it, though.  It would also help if someone could make the outpost system seem worth bothering, and/or piracy a profitable and interesting activity.

[Valmy]

I sure hope Bethesda takes note for TES6.

Part of me kind of hopes they don't make it. Every TES game since Morrowind has gotten a little worse. Just IMO.

Skyrim>Oblivion IMO.

The perception of the new game being worse is, IMO, created by the fact that we were going from fully-modded older games to unmodded newer games.  Modded Skyrim is better than Oblivion and modded Oblivion is better than Morrowind (in fact, you can play Morrowinfd in modded Oblivion).

Maybe. But I played both unmodded.

I played them for about a hundred hours each and eventually lost interest. Never go to the point of using the mods.

[Josquius]

I sure hope Bethesda takes note for TES6.

Part of me kind of hopes they don't make it. Every TES game since Morrowind has gotten a little worse. Just IMO.

Skyrim>Oblivion IMO.

>Morrowind.

Though I will say I've played skyrim a lot less than oblivion despite it being objectively better. I guess it's just less good for it's time.

[The Minsky Moment]

Mods took care of that.  I agree that, while it lasted, it was ridiculously funny for bandits in 2,000 gold piece armor trying to rob the PC of his 20 gold pieces.

You can't get rich without sweating the little stuff.

[The Minsky Moment]

Tbh, I'm not quite clear why judges would rule in favor of Apple in one case (with the Apple platform generally being more restrictive than Android), but against Google.

Although Google filed legal motions to dispose of the case pre-trial, those motions appear to have been dropped - perhaps because Google was pursuing counterclaims against Epic and was willing to go to trial.  Google did move for judgment as a matter of law at trial and its argument relied heavily on the 2023 appeal's court decision in the Epic v. Apple case. Assuming the district judge does not disturb the verdict, Google may appeal and ask the court of appeals to overturn the verdict as contrary to law, relying on the Apple precedent.

Thanks for the info.

To be clear - Google is in a much tougher spot than Apple was on appeal.  The Apple case was a bench trial and the judge ruled for Apple.  So the appeals court was just deciding if the judge's decision for Apple was justifiable.  Here, a jury gave a verdict for Epic, which means google faces the uphill battle of showing that the verdict is totally inconsistent with the law. Even though it's the same appeals court in both cases, they could reach different results because of the deference given to jury findings.