Tech that...
A ROUND-UP OF THE LATEST NEWS IN THE DIGITAL WORLD
AN EPIC FORTNITE BATTLE
AN almighty row has blown up in the world of mobile gaming – the makers of mega-game Fortnite have more or less gone to war with Apple and Google…
Epic Games added a feature to Fortnite allowing users to make payments to them that circumvent Apple and Google’s own payments systems. And that’s against the App Store and Play Store rules. Both companies take a 30% cut of anything spent in their App Stores – they say it’s their fee for providing the platform and building the infrastructure on which the developers can distribute their games. They also point to the fact that their fees are broadly comparable to those taken by console-makers Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft.
But Epic isn’t having any of that. Apple and Google’s response was to remove Fortnite from their stores. Epic’s response to that was to file a lawsuit against the pair.
Apple then upped the ante by threatening to revoke Epic’s developer credentials, which would have the effect of removing ALL their games from the App Store.
It’s hard to see a resolution to the issue, but it’ll be interesting to watch the biggest company in the world slug it out with the makers of the biggest game in the world.
TELEGRAM GOES INTO VIDEO
THE messaging app Telegram, which focuses on speed and security, is moving into the video calling space. It announced this week that end-to-end encrypted person-toperson video calls would be available in the app now, while multi-user calls would become available later this year.
Last month Telegram revealed it now has 400m users across the globe. In other messaging news, users are beginning to report that Instagram is finally seeing messaging integration with Messenger. Watch out to see the Instagram direct message icon in the top right of your home screen switch to the Messenger icon when the service is turned on for you.
The move is part of a wider plan by Facebook to combine all its messaging services (in Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp) into a single service that can be used in any of the apps.