Shortly before the start of the confrontation with Apple, the head of Epic Games asked Microsoft to make multiplayer on Xbox consoles free. He sent a letter with this idea to Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox.

Walmart planned to launch its own game streaming service called Project Storm. It was supposed to be released on Windows and support launchers like Steam, Epic Games Store, Origin and Battle.net . It was also assumed that games in Project Storm could be obtained through subscription and direct purchases.

On May 11, the head of Epic Games sent a letter to Yves Guillemot, the head of Ubisoft. He wrote that in the last 48 hours, 70% to 90% of fraudulent transactions in The Division 2 have passed through the Epic Games Store (EGS).

During the hearing on the case, the head of Epic Games admitted that he would be satisfied if Apple decided to soften the conditions in the App Store only for his company. Apparently, it was about reducing the commission by 30%.

Sony for a long time did not want to support the crossplay function on PlayStation consoles, refusing to share its audience with competitors. In 2019, she changed her mind, but set a condition — game publishers will have to pay a commission.

Toys For Bob studio, part of Activision Blizzard, will no longer make its own games. Now she will support the third season of Call of Duty: Warzone. Developers are not satisfied with such changes.

Today, the concept of metaverses in the gaming industry is becoming increasingly popular. Microsoft reported that the authors of content for Minecraft have already earned over $350 million on it. And individual game developers for Roblox earn hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars a year. We tell you what metaverses are and why developers are actively investing in them.

Russia’s largest bank “Sber” will undertake the development and publication of video games. To do this, he launched the “Sber Games” direction within the framework of the subsidiary company “Sberintertainment“. Alice Chumachenko, founder and former CEO of Game Insight, became the co-founder and CEO of the gaming business.

Electronic Arts has once again got into a scandal related to loot boxes. The network published an internal document of the company, which directly says that the developers are doing everything possible to force gamers to use the FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) mode. That’s just EA itself calls it all a “sensational story with a distortion of facts.”

The well-known game analyst Benji-Sales compared the ratings of The Oscar and The Game Awards over the past few years. The last TGA had a large audience almost 9 times, while the popularity of the main film award is rapidly falling. However, comparing these ceremonies in this way is not entirely correct.Geoff Keighley and Josef Fares at TGA 2017

The post-IDFA era has arrived. The iOS 14.5 update was released yesterday, which “blocks the oxygen” to the advertising identifier. From now on, iOS applications should ask the user at the first launch whether he agrees to share personal data.

Sony continues to actively develop ideas that, in theory, can facilitate the passage of even the most complex and demanding games. The corresponding patents of the company speak about the movement in this direction. Among them is an expert assistance system, difficulty adjustment based on machine learning, as well as an AI assistant for passing certain sections of the game.Demon’s Souls (2020)

Today it became known about the government’s plans to establish a special fund to support games that popularize Russian history and culture. It is reported that the main initiators — Mail.ru Group and Yandex, and the project itself can work by analogy with the Cinema Fund.The initiative was included in the latest edition of the second package of measures to support the IT industry, Kommersant reports.

Now you can download not only games, but also software from the Epic Games Store. The store even has a special section for them. There are only six programs available in it so far, but Epic Games promises that there will be more of them over time. One of their first programs of the section was itch.io — store of indie games without DRM.

Valve has announced the official release of two new features on Steam at once. Playtest and simplified game search came out of beta. We share details about each of them.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is introducing a special esports program. It will be held in cooperation with international sports federations and game publishers before the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo. Among the disciplines are baseball, cycling, rowing, sailing and motorsport.Gran Turismo Sport

In the conflict between the studio Frogwares and the publisher Nacon, which began after the release of The Sinking City, new details have emerged. Relations between the companies began to deteriorate even at the development stage. The key problems are a lack of trust and communication, a dispute over money from an exclusive deal with EGS, unpaid royalties, as well as a secretly developed port for the Nintendo Switch.The investigation was published on April 20…

Apple has announced the release date of iOS 14.5 — April 26, 2021. Recall that it is with this update that a new privacy policy will come into force on the platform, which will allow users to block the IDFA advertising identifier.

Since its foundation, Techland has remained a closed company. However, now the developers of Dying Light have become a “joint stock company”. This may indicate that the company is preparing to enter the stock exchange.Dying Light 2