Google settles with Epic Games, drops its Play Store commissions to 20% | TechCrunch
techcrunch.com
Google has dropped its commission, charging a 20% service fee and an optional 5% to use its billing services. It will also offer a new process for third-party app stores.
  • Picasso@thelemmy.clubEnglish
    2 months

    they talk about alternative stores as well but fail to do a great reporting on the issue … a alternative appstore that need’s google approve it’s simply not a real alternative.

    From https://keepandroidopen.org/ In August 2025, Google announced ↗ that as of September 2026, it will no longer be possible to develop apps for the Android platform without first registering centrally with Google. This registration will involve:

    • Paying a fee to Google
    • Agreeing to Google’s Terms and Conditions
    • Providing government identification
    • Uploading evidence of the developer’s private signing key
    • Listing all current and future application identifiers
  • db2@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 months

    Reminder: Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has defended child pornography, saying that stopping it is “gatekeeping”.

    • madcaesar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 months

      All mega corps are shit and run by assholes.

      Except Costco. For now at least.

      • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2 months

        As someone who just tried to sign up for a Costco membership online and couldn’t get past the first page of registration, on multiple devices, Costco is kinda shit too, lol.

          • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2 months

            Planning on it lol. Was just mildly annoyed because I needed a product I have to order through their website anyway and I’ll probably need to get a month supply somewhere else to hold me over until I can get the membership and finally get it shipped.

        • exaybachae@startrek.websiteEnglish
          2 months

          Oh, Costco is in the stone ages still in a lot of ways, it’s pretty unsettling sometimes. But also using tried and true methods and waiting decades to adopt modern tech saves a ton of cash… Which doesn’t just benefit the stock holders when you’re a company like Costco.

          Go in in person on a weekday before 3pm and sign up at the service desk.

    • fallaciousBasis@lemmy.worldBanned from communityEnglish
      2 months

      His position was essentially:

      1. AI systems sometimes produce harmful or illegal content despite safeguards.
      2. Governments shouldn’t use that as a reason to pressure platform gatekeepers to remove an entire service.

      Important distinctions:

      1. He said he defends open platforms and free speech.
      2. He explicitly said he does not defend the harmful content itself.
      • exaybachae@startrek.websiteEnglish
        2 months

        Yeah, was pretty sure it was something like that…

        I used AI to make a Home Alone themed digital Christmas card last year. It was completely PG. But it was a nightmare to do as I kept tripping over gates on account of Kevin being a child and Home Alone being a copyrighted property.

        I went all the way to the dark end of the AI gen spectrum, to where kiddie porn abdolutely happens, but the product I produced there was unsatisfactory. So I went alI went back to the top players with all the gates and worked around them by reworking my prompts for what seemed like forever.

        1 year earlier I would’ve gotten the results I wanted with my first prompt, maybe tweaking fonts for the words, fixing spelling errors, or making minor visual features. 5min tops.

        It really turned me off from continuing to play with AI.

        Those gates have gotten really nasty.

        It’s as though users are treated as guilty in advance and then denied the opportunity to prove themselves innocent.

        Completely backwards attitude and practice.

    • null@lemmy.orgEnglish
      2 months

      It wasn’t so much he was defending child pornography as he was saying leftists wanted to selectively take down a right-wing social media platform that right-wingers already successfully took from leftists and replaced with X.

      • db2@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2 months

        That’s definitely an opinion. A wrong one, but an opinion.

        • null@lemmy.orgEnglish
          2 months

          That’s fine and all, but the same people saying Sweeney defended pedophilia are close to if not the same people who say you’re defending pedophiles if you don’t like payment processors strong-arming porn off of a bunch of different platforms. This is not an accusation against you.

          • db2@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2 months

            I’ve literally never heard that claim until just now.

            • null@lemmy.orgEnglish
              2 months

              That’s not surprising. There aren’t a lot of people rising up to defend the porn games that got delisted on sites like itch. Don’t worry, once all the porn is gone you’ll be hearing people saying the same thing to you when you argue against using facial recognition to shitpost on the internet. Gotta protect the kids!

      • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2 months

        Right wingers? You mean a nazi? A nazi took twitter that was traditionally not a political platform. It was not left wing. Google says a study showed that it was algorithmicly right leaning in terms of content.

        Your comment is a load of bollocks.

        Sorry to say.

        • null@lemmy.orgEnglish
          2 months

          I’m going to selectively edit my post to make it easier for you to read and not get distracted from the point of what I was saying.

          It wasn’t so much he was defending child pornography as he was saying leftists wanted to selectively take down a right-wing social media platform that right-wingers already successfully took from leftists and replaced with X.

          • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2 months

            And i am going to point out that i responded to the part of your comment that i had a problem with.

            I don’t know anything about the “point of your post” so i can’t comment.

            But i would say that after brief google search, if Tim Sweeney wants to defend AIs making deepfake porn then X is 100% thr best platform to do it on. 🙄

  • Programman4233@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2 months

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but can’t this be used as a precedent for other app makers that are screwed over by google’s monopoly?

  • ryper@lemmy.caEnglish
    2 months

    So after all that, Epic just got the commission cut by 1/3? Wonder how long it’ll take their savings to equal what they spent on legal fees and the revenue they missed while Fortnite wasn’t on the Play Store.

    edit: Ars’ coverage says attorneys’ fees were included in the settlement, so I guess Epic only needs to make up the missed revenue.

  • EonNShadow@pawb.socialEnglish
    2 months

    Alright so

    Line must go up, so where are they going to recoup that loss of revenue?