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Itch was added to the Epic Games Store shortly before the trial. Allison says Epic just hosts Itch, not the games themselves. These games are “so offensive we cannot speak about them here."
Judge is now trying to parse the process of getting from the EGS to “that other store could be downloaded which has all of that offensive material.” In terms of providing access on mobile, Allison says “I don’t know that we would want to do that with http://Itch.io ."
i really hope this trial ends with a federal judge pulling up http://itch.io porn in court
under Apple’s logic I have several games on the Epic Games Store
very forward-thinking of epic to sell so many lyric games https://twitter.com/CodeCloak/status/1390771894610284546
“that slide just says ‘graveyard’ on it” this presentation is extremely goth
if you’re curious “graveyard” is epic’s word for slides it doesn’t use. which now that I say it is still pretty goth
We have once again converged on the date of the Project Liberty hotfix.
“When did you become involve in Project Liberty?” judge asks. Around August of 2020, Allison said.
“I said nothing to Mr. Sweeney about Project Liberty,” Allison says, when asked if he told Tim Sweeney maybe they shouldn’t be deceiving Apple.
Epic is going back to the Ooblets blog and the aftermath recounted in pieces like this: https://www.vice.com/en/article/a35wm8/gamers-are-harassing-ooblets-developer-over-epic-games-store-exclusivity
“There was backlash from the trolling community,” notes Allison.
“There was backlash from the trolling community,” notes Allison.
“Anything that goes in a graveyard is a slide that is dead.”
“Now that you know that there are offensive and sexualized apps on http://itch.io … do you plan to do anything about that?” lawyer asks Allison.
Allison: “I don’t have an answer for you, I will dig in when we get back,” but " http://Itch.io is an incredible community for developers that we support fully.”
Lawyer: “[Do you] support fully the offensive and sexualized content that is found there?”
Allison: “I don’t support sexualized content of any sort.”
Allison: “I don’t support sexualized content of any sort.”
wow the trolling community is very happy about these tweets
Allison’s testimony is over. We are now calling Matthew Weissinger, vice president of marketing at Epic Games.
The first line of questioning is about Fortnite’s creative mode, starting with a promo video:
“I can’t believe this was made in Fortnite!”
It’s a recreation of Paris in Fortnite, apparently. I can’t see the video.
“I can’t believe this was made in Fortnite!”
It’s a recreation of Paris in Fortnite, apparently. I can’t see the video.
A serious side note, I really hope this doesn’t cause blowback for http://Itch.io . It’s a wonderful platform that hosts some of the most creative stuff in the games world.
Judge is asking why you couldn’t have a separate app with Fortnite non-gaming content. “We have so many people going through Fortnite” that we want to support different modes. Is I think the argument? Judge says “I still don’t understand,” so, same.
“Why not just have four apps?” judge asks.
Weissinger: “Because all of your social connections exist within that one app.”
Weissinger: “Because all of your social connections exist within that one app.”
Judge: "But what about cross-platforming? Why couldn’t you have four apps, and as long as you had an account, your friends would still be there."
Weissinger: That’s a “confusing experience” for user.
Weissinger: That’s a “confusing experience” for user.
“Itch dot eye oh” https://twitter.com/jeffool/status/1390782743378681862
told you this case was a big deal! https://twitter.com/itchio/status/1390782877416054794
Weissinger is talking about the creation of non-gaming modes as a response to people who just wanted to show up and hang out in Fortnite, not play the traditional game modes.
Oh god now we’re back on Roblox.
Oh god now we’re back on Roblox.
seen a lot of these memes during the trial but i think this one wins https://twitter.com/lowpolis/status/1390783808975278082
“Where do most users make their purchases” in Fortnite, i.e. in-game versus things like passes you buy with real money.
Most buy content from inside Fortnite, says Weissinger.
Most buy content from inside Fortnite, says Weissinger.
What would happen if people couldn’t make in-app purchases in Fortnite?
Weissinger: “It would be devastating."
Weissinger: “It would be devastating."
Boils down to, it’s great to be able to see virtual goods before you buy them, and you’re “immersed” in Fortnite and don’t want to leave it. “If suddenly you then have to leave that experience, you’re totally breaking the immersion of it."
huh so that’s what a kotaku is https://twitter.com/rcmacleod/status/1390786717783822338
“What does Epic do to market Fortnite at a high level?”
Weissinger: “That’s another one of those fun things about Fortnite, at a high level how we try to market is believe it or not the biggest marketing vehicle we have is the game itself."
Weissinger: “That’s another one of those fun things about Fortnite, at a high level how we try to market is believe it or not the biggest marketing vehicle we have is the game itself."
Weissinger describes Fortnite lore as a marketing tactic to draw people into Fortnite. Helping the user to understand why characters or parts of the world are important, building up to a release/launch/event.
We’re still talking about stuff that will establish that Fortnite doesn’t just do games, it has messenging and concerts and Chris Nolan and so forth.
If you want a recap of this week, @tomwarren and I appeared on the Vergecast to lay it out. Sadly this was recorded before the Friday Itchpocalypse https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/7/22424947/apple-v-epic-trial-week-1-vergecast-podcast-451
Alright, we’re wrapping up the first week of Epic v. Apple. Next week we’ll finish testimony from Weissinger, and then we’ll move into expert testimony and more binders — many, many binders. See everybody Monday, I’m off to play unspeakable games.
Postscript to be totally clear about this again: all the silly UNSPEAKABLE GAMES stuff is Apple’s lawyer, not Allison/Epic. https://twitter.com/thedextriarchy/status/1390770755181453316
