Sony accused of ‘blatant anti-competitive conduct’

Congress has raised concerns about Sony's monopoly on the gaming market in Japan, calling for an investigation into the firm's alleged "exclusionary conduct."

Senator Maria Cantwell told a Senate Finance Committee hearing: “Sony controls a monopoly of 98 percent of the high-end game market, yet Japan's government has allowed Sony to engage in blatant anti-competitive conduct through exclusive deals and payments to game publishers.”

Cantwell called on US Trade...

28 March 2023 | Gaming

Microsoft intends to launch a mobile app store

Microsoft is planning to launch a mobile app store that will compete against the App Store and Play Store.

According to Microsoft’s Xbox head Phil Spencer, Microsoft will take advantage of an upcoming EU law that will break up the monopoly held by the two major smartphone platform holders.

"We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play," Spencer told the...

21 March 2023 | Android

Google tool helps developers create XR experiences

Google has released a tool called Immersive Stream for XR that makes it easier for developers to create mixed-reality experiences.

Earlier this week, the company held an event where it demonstrated a new “immersive view” in Google Maps that uses advances in AI and computer vision to fuse billions of Street View and other images to create a detailed 3D model of locations. Impressively, it even works indoors to allow users to check out a venue like a restaurant before they...

10 February 2023 | Developer

Game development legend John Carmack quits Meta

Legendary game developer John Carmack has quit his executive consultant position at Meta.

Carmack, the co-founder of id Software and lead programmer of gaming classics including Doom and Wolfenstein, posted a scathing letter detailing his decision:

This is the end of my decade in VR.

I have mixed feelings.

Quest 2 is almost exactly what I wanted to see from the beginning – mobile hardware, inside out tracking, optional PC streaming, 4k (ish)...

20 December 2022 | Gaming

Apple may unveil its mixed reality headset in January

We could finally see Apple’s much-anticipated mixed reality headset in just a couple of months.

According to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is gearing up to unveil the headset early next year. The headset is expected to offer a seamless transition between virtual and augmented reality.

Unlike efforts from Meta, Apple has reportedly designed its mixed reality headset for short stints of communication, content viewing, and gaming. The metaverse is...

15 November 2022 | Gaming

Unity rejects AppLovin’s bumper takeover bid

Game development platform Unity has rejected a large takeover bid from mobile technology firm AppLovin.

AppLovin offered to acquire Unity in an all-stock deal worth $17.5 billion. However, the offer came with the stipulation that Unity drops its own bid for ironSource.

IronSource and AppLovin both offer services to help developers grow and monetise their apps.

Unity’s acquisition of ironSource would provide the latter with a significant advantage in both...

16 August 2022 | Development Tools

Unity CEO apologises for calling some game devs ‘the biggest fucking idiots’

Unity CEO John Riccitiello has apologised for a recent interview in which he called some game developers “the biggest fucking idiots”.

Pocket Gamer was interviewing Riccitiello about the game development platform’s merger with monetisation and distribution specialists ironSource when he made the comment.

Here’s the part of the interview in question (emphasis ours):

Pocket Gamer: Implementing monetisation earlier in the process and conversation is...

19 July 2022 | Gaming

Game developer criticises NFTs at event sponsored by blockchain firms

A game developer surprised attendees of an event sponsored by blockchain firms by criticising NFTs.

NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have become one of the blockchain industry’s darling use cases. The technology is primarily associated with art projects; with purchasers able to prove their ownership thanks to immutable records on blockchains.

Arguably, the most infamous NFT project is Bored Ape Yacht Club—which even recently featured in a music video by Eminem and Snoop...

13 July 2022 | Blockchain

Project Moorcraft: Xbox will pay game developers to publish demos

Xbox has unveiled Project Moorcraft, an initiative to boost the demos available on Game Pass while helping developers to earn some bucks.

This month is when game developers and fans usually flock to the E3 Expo to see the latest game reveals and platform updates and get their hands on early previews of upcoming titles.

E3 was put on hold during the pandemic and all the major gaming players switched to virtual events for their big reveals. Unfortunately, that meant lining...

9 June 2022 | Gaming

ARCore Geospatial API helps developers build immersive experiences

During I/O 2022, Google launched its ARCore Geospatial API to help developers build more immersive, richer, and more useful experiences.

Augmented reality experiences are beginning to gain traction beyond Pokémon Go. Now there are AR apps for making floorplans, seeing how furnishings will look in your home, understanding the world around you, and even getting real-time information about the night sky.

Google showed off enhancements to its own AR solution, Lens, during...

12 May 2022 | Android