Genshin Impact made almost $400m in two months on mobile

December 2nd, 2020, 22:30 Posted By: wraggster

Genshin Impact made $393 million in two months on mobile, from its release on September 28.

MiHoYo's hit generated around $6 million a day on average during that period. According to Sensor Tower's latest data, the only mobile title surpassing Genshin Impact in the period between its launch and November 28 was Tencent's Honor of Kings, which generated $467 million in revenue.

It's worth noting that this data does not include revenue from third-party Android stores, which are widely used in territories such as China. And the country happened to be the largest market for player spending during Genshin Impact's first two months, making up 30.5% of the total revenue (equalling $120 million). Japan charted at No.2 with $98 million, followed by the US with $74 million.

PUBG Mobile was a close third in the charts from September 28 to November 28, sitting right behind Genshin Impact with $384 million generated. Completing this top five were Pokémon GO with $238 million and Coin Master with $229 million.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...nths-on-mobile

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Was Activision Blizzard right to ignore mobile?

December 2nd, 2020, 22:23 Posted By: wraggster

A decade ago, Activision Blizzard had a toe in almost every corner of the business. It had AAA core gaming and budget titles. It had original IP and licensed games based on kids movies and comic books. It had single-player adventures and massively multiplayer online worlds.
Part of the way it became such an all-encompassing entity was through mergers and acquisitions. Activision bought RedOctane and the Guitar Hero franchise when they were just taking off, and then acquired FreeStyle Games, Budcat Creations, and 7 Studios to churn out more content in the briefly insatiable rhythm game genre. It merged with Vivendi Games to bring Blizzard's MMO, RTS, and action RPG hits into the fold and become a force in PC gaming. It bought Bizarre Creations to fill the racer-shaped hole in its portfolio.
So given Activision Blizzard's interest in expanding into trending new markets and willingness to buy its way into them, why wasn't it making a move for mobile in 2010, the year the iPad debuted and smartphones were still ascendant?
As CEO Bobby Kotick explained at the Reuters Global Media Summit, he just wasn't interested in mobile games.

Was Activision Blizzard right to ignore mobile? | 10 Years Ago This Month | GamesIndustry.biz

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UK mobile game spending reaches new single-day record on Black Friday

November 30th, 2020, 21:14 Posted By: wraggster

The UK's single-day mobile gaming revenue hit a new all-time high on Black Friday, reaching a total of $6.5 million according to data shared by Sensor Tower.
This number is up 16% year-over-year from last year's Black Friday, which saw $5.6 million in mobile player spending.
The highest-grossing game was Coin Master, followed by Roblox and Candy Crush.
Approximately 63% of this spending occurred on the App Store, with Google Play making up the rest of the total.
Additionally, approximately 2.2 million new mobile game downloads occurred on Black Friday in the UK, roughly flat year-over-year with last year's Black Friday.

UK mobile game spending reaches new single-day record on Black Friday | GamesIndustry.biz

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Britain Commits $333 Million To Help Carriers Replace Huawei 5G

November 27th, 2020, 22:59 Posted By: wraggster

Britain will spend $333 million to diversify its sources of 5G wireless equipment after banning China's Huawei from supplying the next-generation technology. From a report:
Huawei is set to be excluded from British 5G networks by 2027 due to security concerns, leaving phone carriers reliant on a supply duopoly of Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson. Around $67 million of the total will be spent next year to help build "a secure and resilient 5G network" according to documents published on Wednesday as part of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak's spending review. The resulting reduction in competition could hurt security and push up prices, so Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden has started a task force to increase the number of suppliers. He is set to publish more details before the end of the year.

Britain's crackdown on Huawei came in July after UK officials said US sanctions made it impossible to verify the security of Huawei's supply chain. The White House accuses Huawei of being a security risk, which the company has always denied. Since then, Nokia and Ericsson have already won major contracts from British carriers like BT Group and CK Hutchison Holdings' Three UK. The phone industry is banking that longer-term initiatives such as OpenRAN -- a project to make mobile network equipment more interoperable and encourage new suppliers -- will eventually introduce more competition.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/1...lace-huawei-5g

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Amazon and Apple 'Not Playing Their Part' in Tackling Electronic Waste

November 27th, 2020, 22:56 Posted By: wraggster

Global giants such as Amazon and Apple should be made responsible for helping to collect, recycle and repair their products to cut the 155,000 tonnes of electronic waste being thrown away each year in the UK, MPs say. From a report:
An investigation by the environmental audit committee found the UK is lagging behind other countries and failing to create a circular economy in electronic waste. The UK creates the second highest levels of electronic waste in the world, after Norway. But MPs said the UK was not collecting and treating much of this waste properly. "A lot of it goes to landfill, incineration or is dumped overseas. Under current laws producers and retailers of electronics are responsible for this waste, yet they are clearly not fulfilling that responsibility," the MPs wrote. About 40% of the UK's e-waste is sent abroad, according to estimates -- something the MPs point out is often done illegally.

The tsunami of electronic waste was throwing away valuable resources vital to a sustainable future, the report published on Thursday said. Globally, thrown-away computers, smartphones, tablets and other electronic waste have a potential value of $62.5bn each year from the precious metals they contain, including gold, silver, copper, platinum and other critical raw materials such as tungsten and indium. MPs accused online retailers including Amazon and eBay of freeriding as they are not considered retailers or producers, and are therefore not legally liable to contribute to the collection and recycling of e-waste. "For all their protestations of claimed sustainability, major online retailers and marketplaces such as Amazon have so far avoided playing their part in the circular economy by not collecting or recycling electronics in the way other organisations have to," MPs said. "Given the astronomical growth in sales by online vendors, particularly this year during the coronavirus pandemic, the EAC calls for online marketplaces to collect products and pay for their recycling to create a level playing field with physical retailers and producers that are not selling on their platforms."

https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/1...ectronic-waste

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Apple Makes Another Concession On App Store Fees

November 24th, 2020, 22:03 Posted By: wraggster

Apple said on Monday that companies that offer digital classes or virtual events through iPhone apps won't have to use Apple's App Store in-app purchases through June 2021, enabling them to charge their customers directly without Apple's 30% commission fee. CNBC reports:
Apple said the extension was to help businesses by giving them more time to transition in-person events to digital events during the Covid-19 pandemic. "Although apps are required to offer any paid online group event experiences (one-to-few and one-to-many realtime experiences) through in-app purchase in accordance with App Store Review guideline 3.1.1, we temporarily deferred this requirement with an original deadline of December 2020," Apple wrote on its developer blog. "To allow additional time for developing in-app purchase solutions, this deadline has been extended to June 30, 2021."
Last week, Apple announced that it planned to reduce its commission to 15% for app developers making under $1 million on Apple's platforms in 2021.

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/20/...app-store-fees

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The US Could Soon Ban the Selling of Carrier-Locked Phones

November 21st, 2020, 21:56 Posted By: wraggster

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired:In the U.S., a complicated combination of corporate interests and pre-smartphone era legislation has resulted in more than two decades of back and forth about the legality of phone locking. It's looking like that battle could ramp up again next year. The transition to a Biden administration could shake up the regulatory body that governs these rules. The timing also coincides with a congressional proceeding that takes place every three years to determine what tweaks should be made to digital rights laws. 2021 could be the year of the truly unlocked phone. For some activists, it's a glimmer of light at the end of a very long tunnel.

[H]ow could carriers be forced to provide phones that are unlocked by default? There are a couple of promising avenues, though neither are a given. The "agenda" here meaning something to be decided by a regulating body. In the UK, the regulator Ofcom made that call. The US Ofcom equivalent is the Federal Communications Commission. Under its current leadership of Trump appointee Ajit Pai, the FCC has been staunchly pro-business, passing legislation like the repeal of net neutrality at the behest of companies like AT&T. "Getting this done in an Ajit Pai FCC would be extremely difficult and very unlikely, given how friendly that FCC has been toward private companies and broadband providers," Sheehan says. "Whether or not that could happen in a Biden administration, we don't know. I think it would be much more possible."

Another route would be to take the problem back to its source: Section 1201 itself. Every three years, the US Library of Congress and Copyright Office hold a rulemaking proceeding that takes public comment. It's a chance for advocates to make their case for amending Section 1201, assuming they can afford the legal fees necessitated by such an involved, drawn out process. It's a less overtly political process, as the key decisionmakers at the two institutions don't come and go with each presidential administration like they usually do at the FCC. These sessions have already yielded positive outcomes for fans of repairability, like an exemption that took effect in 2016 that made it legal to hack car computers and other devices. The next proceeding is currently underway. If citizens want to urge the government to amend Section 1201, the first round of comments are required to be in by December 14. Responses and additional proposals will go back and forth through the spring of 2021, until the Copyright Office ultimately decides which changes to implement. Both Sheehan and Wiens are working with other advocates to make their case for a future of unlockability.

The US Could Soon Ban the Selling of Carrier-Locked Phones (slashdot.org)

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Apple is Lobbying Against a Bill Aimed at Stopping Forced Labor in China

November 20th, 2020, 23:15 Posted By: wraggster

Apple lobbyists are trying to weaken a new law aimed at preventing forced labor in China, the Washington Post reported Friday, citing two congressional staffers familiar with the matter, highlighting the clash between its business imperatives and its official stance on human rights. From the report:The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would require U.S. companies to guarantee they do not use imprisoned or coerced workers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang, where academic researchers estimate the Chinese government has placed more than 1 million people into internment camps. Apple is heavily dependent on Chinese manufacturing, and human rights reports have identified instances in which alleged forced Uighur labor has been used in Apple's supply chain.

The staffers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks with the company took place in private meetings, said Apple was one of many U.S. companies that oppose the bill as it's written. They declined to disclose details on the specific provisions Apple was trying to knock down or change because they feared providing that knowledge would identify them to Apple. But they both characterized Apple's effort as an attempt to water down the bill. "What Apple would like is we all just sit and talk and not have any real consequences," said Cathy Feingold, director of the international department for the AFL-CIO, which has supported the bill. "They're shocked because it's the first time where there could be some actual effective enforceability."

Apple is Lobbying Against a Bill Aimed at Stopping Forced Labor in China (slashdot.org)

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Pokémon Go restores social distancing benefits to the game

November 20th, 2020, 23:05 Posted By: wraggster

Niantic has announced that it will restore a number of bonuses to Pokémon Go that had previously been added to the game to facilitate safe play during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The developer first made adjustments to the game back in March, offering mechanical shifts and bonuses to discourage players from gathering in large groups, hanging around public populated spaces, and play the game more effectively while staying at home.
These improvements immediately resulted in Pokémon Go's best week of revenue yet, and were expanded upon later that month.
It also converted Pokémon Go Fest 2020 into a global, digital event, which resulted in $17.5 million in player spending according to Sensor Tower.
Then, in September, Niantic announced it would be making some changes (such as the ability to participate in raids and interact with Gyms from a farther distance away) would remain in the game for the foreseeable future, though others such as the distance required to hatch eggs and the increased effectiveness of certain items would return to pre-pandemic functions.

Pokémon Go restores social distancing benefits to the game | GamesIndustry.biz

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Genshin Impact leads October digital game spending

November 20th, 2020, 23:04 Posted By: wraggster

Genshin Impact from Chinese developer MiHoYo generated more digital revenues than any other game last month, according to the latest monthly digital spending report from tracking firm Superdata.


While Genshin Impact only ranked second on the mobile earnings chart, ninth on the console chart, and outside the top 10 on PC, its relative popularity across platforms boosted it above category leaders like League of Legends, NBA 2K21, and Pokémon Go.


Overall, October digital spending was up 14% year-over-year to $10.6 billion, according to Superdata. Console spending saw the biggest jump, rising 18% year-over-year despite 2019's total featuring the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. (This year's iteration of the annualized franchise returned to its usual November release window.)


Mobile digital spending was up 15% year-over-year, while PC was up 10%.


Notable new releases included Watch Dogs: Legion, which Superdata said sold 1.9 million copies digitally. FIFA 21 sold 1.5 million units, up from 1.2 million for the previous year's version.

Genshin Impact leads October digital game spending | GamesIndustry.biz

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Google Stadia begins public iOS test in a few weeks

November 19th, 2020, 21:54 Posted By: wraggster

Google is preparing to launch its Stadia streaming service on iOS in the next few weeks as a progressive web application via Safari.
This news was shared by Google as a part of its one-year update on Stadia -- the company did not offer further details on the rollout.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...in-a-few-weeks

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Tim Sweeney on Apple's 15% cut: "We're not fighting for a lower commission"

November 19th, 2020, 16:07 Posted By: wraggster

Tim Sweeney has responded to Apple's new tiered commission system, reiterating that the 30% fee itself is not at the heart of his company's ongoing legal battle with the iPhone maker.
Yesterday, Apple unveiled the App Store Small Business Program, which reduces the commission fee on sales and in-app purchases to 15% for developers who earned less than $1 million in the previous calendar year.
The initiative was positioned as an effort to assist smaller and new developers, but has inevitably been viewed as a subtle response to Epic Games' ongoing complaint about the 30% fee.
Back in August, Epic added direct payments to Fortnite to avoid giving Apple its 30%. This prompted Apple to remove the game from the App Store, to which Epic responded with an anti-trust lawsuit.
Following the news of the 15% cut, Fortnite fans reached out to Sweeney, asking whether such a deal would bring the battle royale back to iOS -- not that Epic would qualify, of course.
"We're not fighting for a lower commission," Sweeney tweeted. "Epic is fighting for fair competition among mobile platform companies, stores, and payment processors. If iOS were open to competing payments and stores, we'd happily return, even if Apple's own payment service still charged 30%.
"Apple's 30% commission is not wrongful, it's just a bad deal. What is wrongful is Apple blocking competing stores and payment processors, to ensure that good deals can't be offered to developers at all."

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...wer-commission

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GeForce Now arrives on iOS via Safari

November 19th, 2020, 15:41 Posted By: wraggster

Nvidia is rolling out its game streaming GeForce Now streaming service on iOS in beta today, the company announced.
The news confirms a BBC report from earlier this month stating that Nvidia's Safari GeForce Now service would allow iOS players to resume playing Fortnite.
While Nvidia did confirm that it is planning to add Fortnite support to GeForce Now, it said it was working with Epic Games to enable a touch-friendly version of the game through the service -- which currently requires a game pad on iOS -- but that version is not ready yet.
Apple has frustrated a number of game streaming platforms with its rules for App Store programs, scuttling attempts by Microsoft, Google, and Facebook to release their respective streaming offerings as iOS apps.
In a briefing with various press about the news, Nvidia's Phil Eisler said the company had discussions with Apple around iOS apps but the platform holder's requirements around a game streaming app wouldn't make for a good user experience.
While Eisler conceded that the service takes a performance hit in going through a browser instead of working as an app, he said it is about 95% the same, adding a few milliseconds of latency.
Beyond the iOS Safari support, Nvidia also announced that GeForce Now will add support for the GOG storefront before the December 10 launch of Cyberpunk 2077.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ios-via-safari

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Google and My.Games launch mobile accelerator program

November 18th, 2020, 22:21 Posted By: wraggster

Google and My.Games Venture Capital are partnering on an accelerator program called Game Drive for mobile games studios and projects.
The two companies today announced that they are beginning the program with a first wave that will be open to studios in Western Europe, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States region, Turkey, Israel, the Middle East, and Africa.
The plan is for Game Drive to expand to further territories throughout 2021.
The program is asking applicants for product and user acquisition metrics, so interested developers need to have games that have already soft launched at least.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...erator-program

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Apple to cut down App Store share to 15% for small developers

November 18th, 2020, 22:15 Posted By: wraggster

Apple announced a new initiative called the App Store Small Business Program, reducing the fee developers have to pay to use the iOS store.
From January 1, 2021, companies who have earned less than $1 million during the previous calendar year will only need to pay a 15% commission on their App Store revenue from apps and in-app purchases, Apple said.
Apple's share will remain 30% for developers earning more than $1 million per year. More details about the initiative will be released in early December.
To be eligible for the App Store Small Business Program from 2021, you need to have earned less than $1 million in proceeds in 2020, across all of your apps on the App Store.
You can apply if you're new to the App Store too, but if you go above the $1 million limit at some point during the year, the standard rate will apply for the remainder of the year. On the other hand, if your revenue falls below the threshold during the year, you can't requalify for the reduced cut until the following year.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said that small businesses are the "backbone" of the economy worldwide, which is what has driven this change in policy.
"We're launching this program to help small business owners write the next chapter of creativity and prosperity on the App Store, and to build the kind of quality apps our customers love," he commented.
Apple's 30% cut has been under fire this year, and at the heart of its dispute with Fornite developer Epic Games. Back in August, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store as Epic implemented direct payments in the game in an attempt to avoid Apple's commission. Epic's CEO Tim Sweeney had always been critical of the iOS store's model, saying in July that Apple had "gone crazy." Around the same time, the European Commission opened an antitrust investigation into Apple.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...all-developers

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simo releases PoC demonstrating iOS 14.1 kernel vulnerability

November 14th, 2020, 22:50 Posted By: wraggster

When it comes to app-based jailbreaks such as unc0ver and Odyssey, new kernel exploits are always essential in order to jailbreak newer iOS releases. This is because kernel exploits, unlike hardware exploits such as checkm8 (supports A11 & older), can be patched through an iOS update thus eliminating previously-used methods to obtain arbitrary code execution with kernel privileges which are key to jailbreak development.
Now, simo (@_simo36 on Twitter) has released a PoC for CVE-2020-27905 (fixed in iOS 14.2 released 2 days ago) which is a vulnerability in the IOAcceleratorFamily component found within iOS that allows for arbitrary code execution with system privileges according to Apple. It is important to mention that simo has released a PoC not a fully-fledged exploit meaning that the code in its current form does not grant tfp0 and/or kernel R/W. However, simo also mentioned that he might release an exploit later on although someone else in the community might decide to write an exploit themselves with the PoC to expedite the creation of a jailbreak for an app-based iOS 14.1 supporting all devices!

https://wololo.net/2020/11/07/ios-ja...on-save-blobs/

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Checkra1n 0.12.0 released with iOS 14.2 support & iOS 14.x jailbreaking on A10 & A11

November 14th, 2020, 22:49 Posted By: wraggster

For those who are out of the loop, checkra1n is a jailbreak that uses the unpatchable checkm8 exploit which leverages vulnerabilities in the BootROM of affected devices. These affected devices, which essentially have a jailbreak entry point forever, include all devices containing the A7-A11 SoC although there have been successful efforts to port the exploit to older devices with A5 & A6 SoCs which did not previously have a public BootROM exploit available.
With checkra1n 0.12.0, the team behind the jailbreak managed to introduce quite a few important features namely:

• Official support for both iOS 14.1 & iOS 14.2
  • Checkra1n 0.11.0 worked on iOS 14.1 unofficially but not on iOS 14.2
• Support for jailbreaking iOS 14.x on A10 & A10X devices which include the iPhone 7, iPod Touch 7th generation, iPad 6/7th generation and iPad Pro 2nd generation (10.5″ & 12.9″)
  • This was achieved through the utilisation of a SEPROM exploit as Apple decided to add some mitigations in SEPOS on A10 & A11 devices that interfered with jailbreaking
• Partial support for jailbreaking iOS 14.x on A11 devices, namely the iPhone 8 (Plus) & iPhone X, was introduced
  • The support is partial because it requires the device NOT to have a pass-code for it to work meaning that devices become less secure! However, we might see some jailbreak tweaks that allow for some form of pass-code in the lock screen although these would obviously not be as safe as the real deal especially since biometrics would still be unusable
  • To jailbreak A11 devices on iOS 14.x, one has to enable the ‘Skip A11 BPR check’ in the Options menu
• https://wololo.net/2020/11/09/ios-ja...l-a11-support/

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SSF PreviewVer R18(V7) - Seag Saturn Emulator for Android

November 14th, 2020, 09:36 Posted By: wraggster

SSF PreviewVer R18(V7) is released. SSF is a Sega Saturn emulator for Windows systems using DirectX 9.0b. The current version claims near-complete implementation of the Sega Saturn hardware (not counting emulation bugs), and can emulate the Saturn based Sega Titan Video arcade hardware too. As with most emulators, CDs or disc images are not included and have to be owned separately. The BIOS is also not included; as of 0.07 Beta R3, games run without the BIOS however. The usage of BIOS files is optional but recommended for better compatibility, and needed for tasks such as management of the contents of the internal memory of the Sega Saturn, or setting the system clock.

https://twitter.com/fessx

http://www.emucr.com/2020/11/ssf-previewver-r18v7.html

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Genshin Impact was the top-grossing mobile game worldwide in October

November 14th, 2020, 09:22 Posted By: wraggster

Genshin Impact was the highest-grossing mobile game across the App Store and Google Play for the month of October, according to Sensor Tower.
According to the analytics group, Genshin Impact brought in nearly $239 million in player spending for the month, approximately 31% of which was from China, followed by 24% from Japan and 19% from the US.
The game brought in $60 million in its first week on mobile alone, and $245 million in its first 30 days following its September launch. This does not include the game's revenue on PS4 or PC.
Notably, Genshin Impact reached No.1 on Google Play, but was at No.1 on the App Store beneath Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ide-in-october

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PUBG Corp. creating new PUBG Mobile for India to get around ban

November 12th, 2020, 23:36 Posted By: wraggster

PUBG Corporation is going to some lengths to ensure PUBG Mobile is still available to Indian players.
The company today announced that it is readying PUBG Mobile India, a new game specific to the Indian market created after the Indian government banned the Tencent-developed PUBG Mobile in September.
PUBG Mobile was one of 118 apps with ties to China that the Indian government banned, citing user privacy violations.+
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...get-around-ban

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