Google began offering third-party app store downloads in the Play Store earlier this week, but US District Judge James Donato says the company isn't doing enough. After reviewing the process for accessing the first non-Google store, Donato ruled that Google has added unnecessary "anticompetitive friction," ordering the company to rectify the issues.
While Epic and Google are patching things up with a global partnership agreement, the two are still on opposite sides of the antitrust case in the US. Google lost the case in 2023, and the intervening years have been about determining how to implement remedies to address Google's anticompetitive behavior. One of the court's key elements is the requirement that Google include third-party app stores in the Play Store, giving users an easy way to get apps from non-Google sources. Aptoide Games became the first such app store recently.
However, Google worked hard to avoid this outcome, attempting to settle with Epic to keep third-party app stores out. When it was forced to admit the Aptoide store under the terms of the ruling, Google didn't exactly put up a banner welcoming third-party app stores. In fact, Judge Donato found in a Thursday hearing that Google's implementation was not good enough, according to The Verge.
Após a Apple garantir, ontem, uma suspensão temporária do processo de cálculo de taxas para compras a partir de links externos em sua disputa judicial contra a Epic Games, a Suprema Corte dos Estados Unidos negou o pedido da companhia para estender essa suspensão até a análise de um outro recurso da Maçã relacionado a uma decisão de desacato no caso.
Com isso, conforme divulgado pela Bloomberg, a empresa deverá seguir as determinações da ação que corre na instância inferior referente à taxa que cobra de desenvolvedores por vendas realizadas fora da App Store.
De fato, a Apple apresentou hoje mesmo uma proposta detalhando a comissão que considera razoável cobrar de aplicativos que incluam links para opções de compra fora da App Store — apenas nos EUA. Vale notar que, até agora, a empresa vinha sendo proibida de cobrar qualquer taxa.
Como detalhado pelo MacRumors, a Apple propõe cobrar metade da comissão normalmente aplicada; assim, aplicativos que pagariam uma taxa de 30% por uma compra/assinatura interna serão cobrados 15% ao direcionar o usuário para uma opção de compra na web — a proposta original era de uma taxa de 27%. Já os participantes do programa para pequenas empresas (Small Business Program), que pagariam 15%, serão cobrados 5%.
Aplicativos padrão: 15%.
Aplicativos integrantes dos programas de parceria para Notícias, Vídeos e Miniaplicativos, bem como renovações de assinaturas: 10%.
Aplicativos elegíveis para o programa de pequenas empresas (Small Business Program): 5%.
Essas taxas propostas deverão ser pagas pelos desenvolvedores quando um usuário tocar em um link contido em um app e realizar uma compra pela web. Por exemplo, se um usuário do Spotify clicar em um link no app para acessar o site do serviço e assinar o plano, os serviços de streaming têm de pagar à Apple uma taxa de 15%.
A Epic usou suas redes sociais para comentar a proposta da Apple. Segundo a desenvolvedora, os valores “estão muito além dos limites estabelecidos” e a empresa aponta que apresentará sua contestação dentro de 60 dias.
Apple's filing is in, and Apple admitted that under the Ninth Circuit's definition of "necessary costs" they would charge 0% for purchases made via linkouts to the web.
Apple proposed linkout fees of 15% for standard apps and 5% for Small Business Program apps. Epic believes…
A Apple apresentou sua petição e admitiu que, segundo a definição de “custos necessários” do Nono Circuito, cobraria 0% sobre compras realizadas por meio de links externos para a web.
A Apple propôs taxas de 15% para aplicativos padrão e de 5% para aplicativos do programa Small Business Program sobre essas transações via link externo. A Epic considera que tais taxas estão muito além dos limites estabelecidos pelas diretrizes do Nono Circuito quanto a taxas permitidas, e temos cerca de 60 dias para apresentar nossa contestação, fundamentada em depoimentos de especialistas.
Já a Apple afirma que os valores foram calculados com base em análises de especialistas e são inferiores às taxas de direcionamento externo que o Google está cobrando no seu processo judicial contra a Epic. A Maçã também protocolou uma petição solicitando o encaminhamento para uma conferência de conciliação — a qual poderá ajudar ambas as partes a chegar a um acordo e a restringir ou resolver as questões pendentes.
A Apple enviou a proposta ao Tribunal do Distrito Norte da Califórnia, onde a juíza Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers agora avaliará a proposta e ouvirá a resposta da Epic, de modo que a empresa terá de implementar a taxa definida pelo tribunal.
Se você é um colecionador de jogos físicos e gostaria de uma ferramenta que o ajudasse a catalogá-los, o app GameZ, desenvolvido pelo brasileiro Raul Lermen, talvez seja a solução que você procurava.
O app reúne tudo num lugar só, organizando a sua coleção inteira de jogos, bem como oferecendo uma avaliação do seu catálogo em reais.
Um diferencial do GameZ é que você pode enviar uma foto ou usar a arte oficial dos seus jogos, as quais aparecem como caixas — com a possibilidade de girá-las para ver a frente e o verso. Além da coleção física, dá para registrar o que você está jogando e acompanhar seu progresso em cada jogo.
Seu catálogo também mostra o registro completo de cada cópia, incluindo seu estado, preço pago, fotos próprias, tags e anotações. É possível buscar pelos jogos pelo nome ou com o código de barras — sendo que o app conta com uma base de dados com mais de 450 mil títulos.
O app oferece ainda um feed social entre amigos colecionadores e tela de descoberta de lançamentos com base no seu gosto por jogos. Ele também conta com diversos recursos de customização da sua coleção.
O GameZ está disponível gratuitamente na App Store, contando com três opções de licenças que desbloqueiam a versão Pro: uma de R$20/mês, outra de R$100/ano e uma compra vitalícia de R$250.
Conforme visto pelo 9to5Mac, a receita gerada por apps que não são jogos bateu um recorde de US$24,4 bilhões, com um crescimento expressivo de 14,6% em relação ao mesmo período do ano passado. Em termos absolutos, foram 25,5 bilhões de downloads no segundo trimestre.
Por outro lado, os jogos apresentaram uma queda de 5,9% em relação ao trimestre anterior, ficando abaixo dos US$20 bilhões pela primeira vez nos últimos nove trimestres — o que pode representar um indício de crise para o setor, pelo menos no mercado mobile.
Quanto aos mercados com o maior número de downloads de apps, o Brasil segue na terceira colocação com 2,43 bilhões de softwares baixados — uma queda de 2%. O país está atrás apenas da Índia (com 6,66 bilhões de downloads) e dos Estados Unidos (com 3,08 bilhões).
A pesquisa também apresentou os gêneros de jogos que mais se destacaram, com a IA generativa liderando esse recorte graças um aumento de 108% ao ano. Segundo os dados, 60% dessa categoria é representada pelo ChatGPT, que cresceu nada menos que 82% ao ano.
O app da OpenAI, inclusive, foi o mais baixado do mundo nos últimos três meses, sendo seguido pelo TikTok e pelo Instagram.
O TikTok também esteve na lista dos que mais geraram receita, ocupando a primeira colocação à frente do ChatGPT e do Google One.
A Apple novamente não conseguiu obter a suspensão do processo de cálculo de taxas para compras a partir de links externos em sua disputa judicial contra a Epic Games. O caso, como já informamos, será analisado pela Suprema Corte dos Estados Unidos em algum momento a partir de outubro — e a Maçã havia solicitado ao Tribunal Distrital Norte da Califórnia que suspendesse os trâmites até lá, mas o tribunal negou o pedido.
As informações foram divulgadas no X por Tim Sweeney, fundador e CEO 1Chief executive officer, ou diretor executivo. da Epic.
Apple's stay was denied! Now they have 24 hours to file their proposed menu of junk fees with The Court, and Epic will have 60 days to file our legal analysis in advance of a court hearing on the topic.
O pedido de suspensão da Apple foi negado! Agora, a empresa tem 24 horas para apresentar ao tribunal sua proposta de lista de taxas abusivas, e a Epic terá 60 dias para protocolar sua análise jurídica antes da audiência sobre o assunto.
Como também apontado por Sweeney, a Apple tem agora 24 horas para apresentar ao tribunal um esboço das taxas que pretende cobrar dos desenvolvedores pelo uso de opções de pagamento alternativas e por links externos para compras realizadas na web. A Epic poderá, dentro de 60 dias, apresentar uma análise da proposta de taxas da Maçã — e o tribunal decidirá o que deverá valer.
Sweeney fez uma segunda publicação sobre o imbróglio, questionando se a Apple vai “documentar honestamente seus custos com o tempo de revisores humanos e tentar recuperá-los?”. Alternativamente, ele sugere que a Apple pode “inventar noções novas e absurdas de custo, até então desconhecidas pela humanidade”.
Will Apple honestly document their costs for human reviewer time and seek to recoup them? Or fabricate outlandish new notions of cost previously unknown to mankind? Tune in 24 hours from now to find out.
Será que a Apple documentará honestamente os custos com o tempo de revisores humanos e tentará recuperá-los? Ou inventará noções de custo absurdas e inéditas para a humanidade? Fique ligado: a resposta virá daqui a 24 horas.
A Apple recorreu à Suprema Corte contra a referida decisão, que concordou em analisar o caso. A Maçã, em seguida, solicitou à magistrada a suspensão do processo na instância inferior, argumentando que a (futura) decisão da Suprema Corte poderá afetar qualquer trabalho realizado nesse meio-tempo.
The campaign to recruit video gamers into Air Traffic Control (ATC) jobs has been a resounding success, according to U.S. Department of Transport head Secretary Sean P. Duffy. This groundbreaking campaign was launched by the USDOT and FAA back in April, hoping to net a bumper intake of skilled operatives with transferable gaming‑related skills such as spatial awareness, multitasking, strategic thinking, and rapid problem‑solving. By the U.S. politician’s account, “the results are HISTORIC” with the campaign the fastest ever to hit its target, and 2,000+ hired.
🚨 GAME CHANGERIn April, we launched a NEW CAMPAIGN to recruit video gamers as air traffic controllers — and supercharged the entire hiring process to get the BEST & BRIGHTEST in faster. The results are HISTORIC ✈️✅ 94% of hiring goal met — fastest time ever to reach target… pic.twitter.com/gN3OGmEIBBAugust 9, 2026
The recruitment ploy of appealing to young adults who love video gaming seems to have been a smart idea. Duffy highlights three metrics to backup his claims that the campaign was a “game changer.”
Firstly, the Secretary of the USDOT says that this recruitment drive for skilled ATC staff achieved a 94% hiring goal, and has seen the “fastest time ever to reach target.” Secondly, they’ve hired the most candidates in a single year – that’s over 2,000 ATC operators. There’s also another 2,000+ recruits in the pipeline, boasted Duffy.
The Secretary of the USDOT went on to claim that, with the gamer recruitment drive now well underway, “we’re building the strongest, sharpest workforce in aviation history.”
In the Tweet from the politician, it is interesting to see the news presenter's tone regarding ‘gamers’ shift from questioning to appreciation, mirroring what might be expected of their audience. We see various games being played in the video reel, but probably the best fit for ATC roles are those who get their kicks from flight simulation games. The video ends with an unnamed exec, standing next to Secretary Duffy, gushing that “we’ve never had a group perform that well.”
The original video that helped this ATC recruitment drive hit the headlines back in April is embedded above, for context. “You’ve been training for this,” states the USDOT video. “Become an Air Traffic Controller.” The message goes on to inform those already interested that the average salary in this role is $155,000 after just three years. Not only that, a successful applicant will “keep millions of people safe every day.”
What do you do when you return to your home town, with your dead mother in your car boot, to find the inhabitants have been turned into robots?
In the boot of her car, Pratelle carries the corpse of her mother and a giant sledgehammer. Her mission is simple: take the hammer to her home town. As you enter shops and homes through the door and leave them through the opposite wall, it becomes clear that the robots who either attack you or flee are all digital versions of your old neighbours.
Pratelle, with her close-cropped hair and dungarees, read to me as a queer woman, but interestingly, testers of the game often mistook her as a man. The team at developer Deconstructeam and longtime collaborator Selkie Harbour didn’t anticipate this confusion but found it fits the character perfectly, especially in this setting based on a small Spanish town like those in which the developers grew up.
A new day has dawned in the Play Store, and it's one that Google tried very hard to avoid. The first third-party app store has arrived in Google Play as a result of the long-running antitrust lawsuit with Epic. Those in the US can now head into Google Play and download Aptoide, a game-focused store that has been available as a sideloaded client since the early days of Android.
Forcing Google to distribute third-party app stores in Google Play was one of several remedies imposed by Judge James Donato after Epic emerged victorious in 2023. The remedies also included lowering developer fees, mirroring Google Play apps in other app stores, and allowing developers to use alternative payment systems. But it was the app store stipulation that seemed to irk Google the most.
Google almost avoided this outcome when it agreed to a settlement with Epic, which was announced early this year. Under the terms, Google would certify third-party app stores to allow users to install and use them with less friction, but it would not host them in Google Play. However, Google and Epic withdrew the settlement when it appeared the court would not approve it. This Registered App Store program is still slated to launch internationally, but in the US, Google is only doing what it must to comply with the judge's orders.
A new day has dawned in the Play Store, and it's one that Google tried very hard to avoid. The first third-party app store has arrived in Google Play as a result of the long-running antitrust lawsuit with Epic. Those in the US can now head into Google Play and download Aptoide, a game-focused store that has been available as a sideloaded client since the early days of Android.
Forcing Google to distribute third-party app stores in Google Play was one of several remedies imposed by Judge James Donato after Epic emerged victorious in 2023. The remedies also included lowering developer fees, mirroring Google Play apps in other app stores, and allowing developers to use alternative payment systems. But it was the app store stipulation that seemed to irk Google the most.
Google almost avoided this outcome when it agreed to a settlement with Epic, which was announced early this year. Under the terms, Google would certify third-party app stores to allow users to install and use them with less friction, but it would not host them in Google Play. However, Google and Epic withdrew the settlement when it appeared the court would not approve it. This Registered App Store program is still slated to launch internationally, but in the US, Google is only doing what it must to comply with the judge's orders.
Game developer David Ashby and Aunty Donna’s Broden Kelly talk about their chaotic and silly sport game – involving meat pies with legs and Ford Falcons on the oval
Try explaining Australian rules football to anyone outside Australia and “it sounds like you’re making it up”, says David Ashby, the multi-hyphenate comedic mind behind deeply silly spoofs such as Italian Spider-Man and Danger 5. “Eighteen players a side, running around on a cricket oval with a rugby ball that has to be bounced every so often and gets kicked between posts – like, what the fuck is happening?”
Two years ago at a fantasy footy barbecue, Ashby had a brainwave: why not make a video game where Australia’s strange national sport becomes even stranger the more you play?
Sunset Visitor studio’s founder tells us about their new, unnerving Captcha-filled world which prompts players to ask what it means to have a ‘meat body’
Sunset Visitor is a studio that has long engaged with the idea that video games are an effective vehicle for ruminating on societal problems. Its Peabody award-winning project, 1000XResist, incorporated the development team’s complex feelings about the Covid pandemic. “We’re pretty used to absorbing the world into the work,” says studio founder Remy Siu. The outfit’s latest game, Prove You’re Human, continues this legacy of reflective game making, providing players with an AI-centric psychological horror experience where they must reason with a learning model convinced that it’s alive. “We’ve tried to situate ourselves in [the question]: what is the effectual feeling of being a person inside of all of this?” Siu says.
The story orbits around Santana, a living, breathing person who’s chosen to split herself in two for work, with her digital clone sent to test a corporate product, a computing system called Mesa. “A large part of [why Santana chooses to do this] is to allow her meat body a life that she doesn’t have, while the digital version of her gets to labour,” says Siu. As Santana’s copy wades into increasingly murky ethical waters, she becomes entangled with Mesa, completing surreal 2D and 3D Captchas to investigate the cyber-world and halt the hallucinations.
Some announcements arrive with fireworks, while others show up as a single easily missed tweet during a flurry of QuakeCon announcements to quietly close one of the longest-running oddities in PC gaming. After roughly 25 years, Return to Castle Wolfenstein (RTCW) is finally available in Germany in its original, uncut form. Bethesda Deutschland dropped the news amidst its QuakeCon announcements, bringing an end to a censorship saga regarding Nazi symbolism that stretches all the way back to the game's original 2001 release.
The game's environments are surprisingly varied despite the relatively primitive technology in use. This level is set in Norway. (Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)
If you weren't around for PC gaming in 2001, it's hard to overstate how different the landscape looked.NVIDIA's GeForce 3 had only recently introduced programmable shaders to consumer graphics cards, theATI Radeon 8500 was fresh competition, Windows XP was brand new, and legendary pioneers 3dfx had just disappearedafter being acquired by NVIDIA. Broadband internet was becoming more common, but plenty of multiplayer sessions still happened over LANs, and a Pentium III or Athlon paired with 256 MB of RAM was enough to run one of the latest engine technology showcases.
Built on id Tech 3, perhaps better known as the tech that powered the incredible Quake III Arena, Grey Matter's Return to Castle Wolfensteinlooked fantastic for its day, and it also inherited the series' unmistakable identity. See, ever since Castle Wolfenstein in 1981, and even more so after Wolfenstein 3D essentially invented the first-person shooter as we know it a decade later, the games have been about one thing above all else: shooting Nazis.
That identity created a problem in Germany. For decades, games depicting Nazi symbolism faced legal and regulatory hurdles that films did not, resulting in a heavily modified German version. In RTCW, swastikas disappeared, Nazi organizations were renamed, Heinrich Himmler became the fictional "Heinrich Höller," and references to the Third Reich gave way to the equally fictional "Wolf Clan."
At first glance, that sounds like the sort of censorship that simply strips away context, yet RTCW was already a strange game. The opening hours suggest a relatively grounded World War II action title. You wake up in a prison with a knife, you fight Nazis in a castle, and things seem normal for about a whole hour before rapidly veering into supernatural pulp. Within a few missions, you're fighting zombies, exploring haunted crypts, and watching the SS dabble in increasinglyimplausible occult experiments.
The final boss Heinrich is barely mentioned before the end of the game, making him quite a surprise if you aren't paying close attention to the story. (Image credit: Alan Chan/MobyGames)
By the end, the final boss isn't Hitler (mech suit or no) or a secret superweapon, but Heinrich I, historically known as Henry the Fowler. He was a real 10th-century German king, supposedly resurrected in the game through dark ritual. He's also somewhat infamously a surprisingly manageable final boss, making for a finish both absurd and anticlimactic after the game's escalating parade of undead knights and bizarre experiments.
Seen through that lens, the censored version accidentally became a different story. Instead of Nazis attempting to exploit medieval occult power, it played more like an ancient secret society preserving itself across the centuries before trying to resurrect its long-dead founder. It's arguably a cleaner fantasy premise. The "Wolf Clan" makes more narrative sense once the game fully commits to gothic horror. However, it does make the opening chapters, where an OSS Ranger is somehow investigating a shadowy organization seemingly unrelated to the wider war, a bit awkward.
The catch, of course, is that it stops feeling much like Wolfenstein. The series' DNA isinseparable from infiltrating Nazi strongholds and sabotaging increasingly desperate attempts to turn the tide of World War II. Remove that element, and the title itself starts to feel like an artifact from another game series altogether.
These surprisingly detailed mission briefings had to be fully reworked for the German version of the game. (Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)
It's a curious example of something that occasionally happens with censorship across entertainment. More often than not, edits simply leave a work feeling diminished. Every so often, though, these constraints produce something unexpectedly memorable. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre owes much of its enduring reputation to how much horror it leaves to implication rather than explicit gore, and that decision was made due to the ratings board. Similarly, action film edits for TV often cut gory death scenes, which can ironically improve the pacing of the film.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein belongs in that same conversation, albeit for different reasons. The German version wasn't a better version of the game in any objective sense, but it accidentally shifted the genre. Instead of occult Nazis, it became a story about an ancient cult whose descendants had survived into the modern era. That's a premise that I personally find more appealing and even internally consistent, even if it comes at the expense of the series' defining theme.
The RealRTCW mod offers widescreen support and improved texturing and lighting over the base game. (Image credit: RealRTCW Team)
So, after a quarter of a century, German players can finally buy the same uncensored game that much of the rest of the world has had since 2001. It's ironic, and it's about time, too. While Germany relaxed its gaming rules in 2018, allowing modern entries like The New Order to go uncut in 2019, Grey Matter's 2001 classic remained stuck in censorship limbo until now.For game preservation, historical authenticity, and simple consumer choice, that's unquestionably the right outcome. Yet it also marks the quiet retirement of one of gaming's strangest alternate versions; a release that, through a combination of legal necessity and narrative coincidence, accidentally stumbled into telling a very different and potentially more compelling story.
Folks in Germany should now be able to pick up the uncensored version of the classic game on sale for just two dollarsat Steamand GOG, or you can get a bundle that includes the original Wolfenstein 3D for just a dollar more. If you grab it, make sure to check out theRealRTCW overhaul mod that radically improves the game with modern features like proper widescreen support and cleaner OpenAL audio.
An extensive Atari ST floppy disk database can now easily be accessed by all netizens. Originally created to serve floppy images to the owners of the SidecarTridge multi‑function hardware add‑on for the Atari ST family (ST, STE, Mega ST, TT, Falcon), anyone can now browse, search, and download the .ST files to use with other hardware, emulators, or even to rewrite the disk images to actual floppies.
The Atari ST Public Floppy Database browser from the SidecarTridge Multi-device is now open on the web to everyone.Until now, searching that community-curated archive of floppy images meant firing up your Atari ST with a SidecarTridge Multi-device. The search lived inside the…July 21, 2026
After reading the announcement, I decided to check out the online repository. My favorite old platformer series was there, with more than one disk featuring the legendary Turrican and Turrican II releases. I also checked and confirmed public domain/shareware favorites like Gravity Force were available, as was Llamatron, and the mono high-resolution Bolo. Some things I looked for, like the Stupendous Demo, seemed to be missing, as were serious art and DTP tools I used to dabble with in the 90s.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
The database is pleasingly new and regularly maintained, though. For example, it has 41 Atari ST disks flagged as recent arrivals. These are a mix of old releases being added, and some extremely new titles like new homebrew games, and a collection of demos released at Sommerhack 2026 just last month.
If you’ve been using computers for a long time, you might recall the Apple II and Apple IIgs, two of Apple’s early computers that were before they had fully committed to the Macintosh platform. While there were plenty of productivity apps and programming tools for Apple II and Apple IIgs, there were also a whole ... Read More
This year is the 30th anniversary of the launch of the original Quake by id Software, if you could believe it. To commemorate that, publisher Bethesda has released a new campaign chapter for the game, titled "Dawn of the Machine."
This is part of a series of new campaign chapters, all developed by MachineGames "in collaboration with id Software." MachineGames is best known for making the games in the relatively recent Wolfenstein reboot series, as well as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The Quake maps are made by a team dubbed "Quake Club," which includes several MachineGames employees who work on Quake maps in their spare time.
The ambition and scope of some of these maps is beyond what was typical for Quake maps back in the late '90s, thanks in part to the team's use of TrenchBroom, a newer map editor that works well on modern systems and is easier to work with and more capable than what folks were using in those days.
The all-conquering franchise’s revamps are technically impressive, its transfers more true to life – and its new grassroots social hub is surprising fun
As if the world wasn’t sufficiently football-obsessed, it’s time to prepare for the arrival of its biggest football video game. EA Sports FC 27 (the franchise that used to be Fifa – what better time to no longer be Fifa-branded?) is due to be released on 25 September. I just spent two intense days in Vancouver, where the EA FC games are made, playing FC 27 and talking to its developers.
With an annual franchise such as EA FC, it helps to have something fresh to entice regular fans, and FC 27 has a whole new element, entitled the Grounds. It’s a physical hub-type area, similar to the City as seen in 2K’s recent NBA 2K basketball games, but much more pleasant to frequent, split as it is into areas inspired by British, French and Argentinian street-football culture.
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