{"id":27780,"date":"2020-08-14T12:43:24","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T16:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pappp.net\/?guid=65eee3dc0526d042e62581a647146550"},"modified":"2020-08-14T12:43:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-14T16:43:24","slug":"epics-battle-for-open-platforms-ignores-consoles-massive-closed-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/?p=27780","title":{"rendered":"Epic\u2019s battle for \u201copen platforms\u201d ignores consoles\u2019 massive closed market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1699059\">Ars Technica<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color : #fff7d5;\n\t\t\tborder-width : 1px; padding : 5px; border-style : dashed; border-color : #e7d796;margin-bottom : 1em; color : #9a8c59;\">Article note: But... publishers and consumers have been fighting that fight with the console vendors since at least the mid 80s, from Tengen and the Nintendo CIC, through the constant legal and technical battles around console-hacking that continue to be a good show today.\r\n\r\nEpic (who are frankly not my favorites, but if they want to spend the enormous resources required to do something about the problem, awesome) is trying to prevent a spread of locked-down, vendor-controlled appliance computers, and the right-to-read style open computing advocates should be pleased they are doing it.<\/div><div>\n<figure><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/console-balloons-caged-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Epic&rsquo;s battle for &ldquo;open platforms&rdquo; ignores consoles&rsquo; massive closed market\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"\/><p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/console-balloons-caged.jpg\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Enlarge<\/a> (credit: Aurich Lawson \/ Getty Images)<\/p>  <\/figure><div><a name=\"page-1\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Yesterday, Epic used <em>Fortnite<\/em> to <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2020\/08\/epic-gives-fortnite-players-discounts-for-skirting-apple-google-fees\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">essentially wage open war against Apple's and Google's mobile app marketplaces<\/a>. First it added a discounted \"Epic Direct Payment\" option alongside the standard iOS App Store and Google Play payment options in <em>Fortnite<\/em>, in direct violation of those stores' policies.<\/p>\n<p>Then, when <em>Fortnite<\/em> was predictably removed from both platforms, Epic <a href=\"https:\/\/cdn2.unrealengine.com\/apple-complaint-734589783.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">filed<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/21759099\/file0.243586135368002.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lawsuits<\/a> against both companies, alleging \"anti-competitive restraints and monopolistic practices\" in the mobile app marketplace. That move came alongside a heavy-handed PR blitz,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=euiSHuaw6Q4\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">including a video<\/a> asking players to \"join the fight to stop 2020 from becoming '1984.'\"<\/p>\n<p>But through this entire public fight for \"open mobile platforms,\" as Epic puts it, there is one major set of closed platforms that the company seems happy to continue doing business with. We're speaking, of course, about video game consoles.<\/p><\/div><p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1699059#p3\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read 21 remaining paragraphs<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1699059&amp;comments=1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Comments<\/a><\/p><div>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.arstechnica.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?a=zCqbU-cLzZY:3Fk_b83gcj8:V_sGLiPBpWU\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?i=zCqbU-cLzZY:3Fk_b83gcj8:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"\/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.arstechnica.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?a=zCqbU-cLzZY:3Fk_b83gcj8:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?i=zCqbU-cLzZY:3Fk_b83gcj8:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"\/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.arstechnica.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?a=zCqbU-cLzZY:3Fk_b83gcj8:qj6IDK7rITs\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?d=qj6IDK7rITs\" border=\"0\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"\/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.arstechnica.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?a=zCqbU-cLzZY:3Fk_b83gcj8:yIl2AUoC8zA\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"\/><\/a>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson \/ Getty Images)<br \/>\nYesterday, Epic used Fortnite to essentially wage&#8230;<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/pappp.net\/?p=27780\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}