The PC is one of the most popular gaming platforms in the world, and one that’s constantly changing. Here at The Verge we cover every aspect, including the latest hardware developments from companies like Nvidia and Logitech, massively popular games like Fortnite and Overwatch, and hugely influential digital platforms like Steam and itch.io.
While Epic may be trying to make secret business deals with Google at the same time it’s trying to settle, Epic’s lead attorney Gary Bornstein made sure to ask Tim Sweeney to clarify one bit as soon as the courtroom re-opened for business. “Will the Epic Games Store get any special treatment from Android in the future under this deal?” he asked. Sweeney said no.
Sweeney told me he loved the bingo card we made during the trial, back in 2023. The courtroom is taking a 15-minute break now.
“I don’t see anything crooked about Epic paying Google off to encourage much more robust competition than they’ve allowed in the past,” he says, as the courtroom turns to page 8 of a term sheet that it’s not showing journalists... about Epic and Google’s secret new deal together.
The secret deal includes Unreal Engine, Tim slipped up to reveal, and it includes Epic spending $800 million over six years to purchase some sort of service from Google. (perhaps cloud?) We put about 80 percent into a different vendor [...] every year we’ve decided against Google, in this year we’re deciding to use Google at market rates,” he says. “We view this as a significant transfer of value from Epic to Google.”
He claims there’s not a joint product development deal with Google exactly. “This is Google and Epic each separately building product lines,” he says, after the judge points out a line in the document that reads “Google and Epic will work together.”
That’s Judge James Donato to Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, asking him whether he thinks Google is an open platform today, when he called it a “fake open platform” in the past and had publicly given up on that ever changing.
Sweeney doesn’t have a great answer. Also, I missed copying down what he did said because I was so distracted by what the courtroom revealed right afterwards... one moment on that.
Sweeney says he reached out in late September of last year. “I reached out to Google after the 9th Circuit Court had ruled on the case, and Sameer Samat was willing to discuss.”
“I felt that events in the world in Epic v. Google and Epic v. Apple were going our way, but globally we were still facing a many year fight, country by country,” he says, deciding that settling was better than continuing to fight other cases around the world.
The judge is not buying this, as you’ll see in my next dispatch.
Epic lead attorney Gary Bornstein, earlier:
“The reason we asked for global, it’s to ensure that even in the United States, there will be sufficient competition because there will be sufficient incentives for people like Epic and small companies to make the investment nescessary to get the scale they need to reach a sufficient portion of the users in the world, not just the 5 percent in the United States.”
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, now: “Developers make apps and ship them broadly across all of the world [...] every store will be able to do a much better job of serving US users if it can reach a worldwide audience.”
The original injunction only applies to the US, but the new proposed settlement has terms that would apply globally.
He was careful not to step on my backpack on his way out of the row; thank you, Tim.
The judge keeps asking Epic why it’s suddenly agreeing to settle with Google — and we’re now hearing a potentially controversial reason why. The courtroom has revealed that Epic and Google are in the middle of a deal that involves “joint product development, joint marketing commitment, joint partnerships,” and the judge is tentatively concerned that Epic is willing to ditch its biggest asks in exchange.
Bernheim is being quizzed on whether this is quid pro quo, and he keeps saying he doesn’t think so, but Judge Donato is letting him avoid discussing specifics because journalists are in the room.
Apparently Epic conducted an experiment with Digital Turbine as a partner, where users could click just once to install the Epic Games Store on their Android phone instead of going through the lengthy “unknown sources” flow. Bernheim claimed half of users failed to get through unknown sources, but 90 percent made it through one-click. Not surprising, but Epic is using it to suggest that a settlement where Google offers one-click to registered app stores would be better.
Some choice Donato quotes towards Epic’s lead attorney:
Judge Donato says he just doesn’t get it.
Here’s Epic’s lead attorney Gary Bornstein to answer:
“We love those remedies, period, full stop. We like them, we asked for them, we like them the way we asked for them. Now we have another option that’s on the table that’s the result of a negotiation with Google. We got something through this negotiation that was not on the table before.”
“The only reason Epic is here is because Epic believes this set of remedies in totality will provide longer-term sustainable competition,” says Bornstein. He says holding out for something like this is “the reason Epic didn’t take payoffs back in the day” from Google’s Project Hug and similar.
Judge Donato says that with three years to set up competing app stores on Android, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and more will surely pile on. “The problem we have now is the box has already been rigged terribly with anticompetitive conduct so that Google is way ahead.”
The overarching question: “Three years and a day, what’s going to happen?”
Bernheim says even if they build those stores, Google will cut off Amazon and co. “Google at that point in time is going to say you can’t have an app that downloads things.” Or erect more friction to sideloading apps.
I don’t quite understand how that changes if were six years rather than three, or why Google wouldn’t shut down its proposed Registered App Store program the same way if that got approved.
“By taking away one part of what I’ve proposed, the effectiveness of the other part declines,” says Bernheim, answering the judge’s question about why he didn’t bring all these proposals before.
“The choice was presented to me that if you want these provisions, which of these do you want? Do you want the ones that are going to provide the better opportunities for competitions to survive, that were in my proposals, or the ones that allow competition to get jumpstarted, which were also in my proposals, which do you pick?”
He seems to be saying that Judge Donato didn’t pick enough of them to make a real dent when he issued his permanent injunction, and didn’t make it last long enough or apply around the world, and so what he truly wanted for competition isn’t happening anyways. So the new settlement is overall better, he’s arguing.
“Why did you press so hard for catalog access if you’re willing to throw it out the window today?” asks Judge Donato.
Bernheim replies: “I don’t want to throw it out [...] I would love to keep it.”
Bernheim says there’s a tradeoff, though. “If you want to get competition going and as a compliment to that you have a remedy that will ensure the competition, once it develops, will continue, that it has a path for continuing, then those remedies that we’ve described will be extremely effective.”
That’s Judge James Donato, continuing to be skeptical, addressing Doug Bernheim, the Epic economist.
Bernheim agrees with the judge that Google still monopolizes the Android app market and payments market; that the facts haven’t materially changed on the ground.
Bernheim says he “would love to have all” of the anti-Google monopoly recommendations he originally argued for, but that he’s just analyzing what’s in front of him, and that Judge Donato’s existing injunction simply doesn’t last long enough at just three years rather than six.
“When that ends, developers are going to be very dependent on off-Google Play distribution,” he says. “To the extent those frictions are still in place, that will be a problem at that point in time [...] they’ll be reliant on a process that has already been shown not to work well.”
He brings up the example of how Amazon’s Appstore never got traction because users had to click through too many Google barriers.
“You called catalog access THE critical remedy to counter the network effects and the pattern of dominance,” says Donato, suggesting that Bernheim is attempting to mislead by suggesting the settlement would be viable without forcing Google to offer up its catalog of apps to rival app stores.
“I questioned you about the need for the duration period, and you said it was such a critical remedy you advocated for a period twice as long,” says Donato.
He appears to have been commissioned by Epic to analyze the settlement’s modified injunction vs. Judge Donato’s original injunction. “There are some very important pluses, there are some very important minuses,” says Bernheim.
His “main pluses” include:
Main minuses?
He’s just been sworn in, and he’s prepared slides; Unfortunately, the screen on my side of the room is dead, so I’ve migrated to the other side, apologizing to several people who graciously moved for me. Bernheim featured prominently during the trial portion of this case.
We’re about to hear the bitter foes-turned-BFFs explain why Judge James Donato should accept their settlement after five-plus years of legal battle. Judge Donato has just entered; Sweeney was on his phone but has put it away. Samat was waiting patiently; he’s got an eye-catching thin beaded bracelet on his wrist.
Microsoft also said that “more than 85% of the Game Pass catalog is compatible with these PCs,” now, after a rocky journey for ARM gaming support on PC.
Other new Xbox app updates, like the new Game Save Sync Indicator and Handheld Compatibility Program labeling, also seem to be well-timed ahead of a possible Qualcomm PC gaming handheld launch in March.
Marathon developer Bungie says it’s fixed a headscratching bug that saw some Steam preorders of the game accidentally trigger installation of Destiny 2 as well — currently a 170GB download. Marathon is finally launching on March 5th, after missing its initial September release.
[X (formerly Twitter)]
A deal on the Steam PC version of RE Requiem was one of a few great deals that I included in today’s deal roundup. The game launches February 27th, and you can get the base game for $57.39 at Fanatical, down from $69.99.
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
Razer’s Min-Liang Tan says the backlash to AI slop is understandable, but that he sees a future where AI can “help game developers make better games.”
During an interview with Wccftech, Micron VP of marketing Christopher Moore says the company is still serving consumers “through different channels,” such as focusing on supplying DRAM modules to device manufacturers like Dell and Asus:
Our viewpoint is that we are trying to help consumers around the world. We’re just doing it through different channels. We still have a very sizable business in the client and mobile markets... I think it’s really important for people to understand we are still servicing the consumer market.
What’s more powerful than an AMD Strix Halo handheld? One with liquid cooling! OneXPlayer brought the Apex handheld and the Super X tablet to CES, both of which attach to this external liquid cooler. (They’re still technically portable once you disconnect.) Nelly has the best look and some benchmarks; I only had time to snap these photos.
In an interview with Game File, the developers of Peak discussed their pricing strategy for the game. At first blush, it seemed like an elaborate way to say “2+2 = 5” but actually makes upsettingly perfect sense the longer you sit it. Six bucks is not five bucks but it is five bucks, know what I mean?
GameSir’s Smart Drive was just a prototype at CES — a wired one at that — but I’ve always wanted to have room for a direct-drive racing wheel in my house. Maybe my thumbs are enough! $139 in Q3. (YouTube version here.)
Asus brought a completely cable-free liquid cooler to CES: Asus’s “Q-Connector” uses hidden pogo pins instead of fan/pump cables! No price, but Asus spokesperson JJ Guerrero says even some mid-range Strix motherboards should include, and you can swap the pogo pins for a cable if you change motherboards. Another way it’s becoming easier to build a beautiful PC.
