Sean Hollister

Valve’s new Steam Deck OLED just went on sale today, but there are goodies for the original LCD model, too — the company is now rolling out a stable build of SteamOS 3.5.5 with a hefty list of fixes, changes, and upgrades. Some of the biggest are ones we’ve already seen in a September beta, like support for VRR and HDR external displays, the ability to tweak your screen’s color and undervolt your processor with new firmware, and a graphics driver update with a big performance improvement for St…

We have spent five days in a San Francisco courtroom watching witness after witness in the Epic v. Google trial. We’ve heard a lot about Google’s app store dealings, mostly from people who aren’t widely known to outsiders. But today, November 14th, we’re expecting to hear from Google CEO Sundar Pichai as he defends Google’s Android empire against antitrust claims from the publisher of megahit game Fortnite. --- [Image: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BWuPfrcqypu5j4TYPVjr9Lz4K0Y=/0x0:2040x1360/2…

And Google didn’t grant it. OnePlus would have had to give up substantial Google revenue share just to ship phones with the Epic Games Store / Fortnite launcher app needed to install the game. “They needed permission in form of a waiver from Google to do this, yes?” Yes, answered Kolotouros. The only way to preload was to give up its Premier rev share, he agreed. Update: here’s a summary of Google’s rebuttal. [Attachment: undefined]

“Oneplus Execs reached out today [...] this is OnePlus-initated request for sustainable long term growth,” reads part of an internal Google email about OnePlus’ decision not to preinstall the app. Epic’s attorney made this sound like a forced / bribed choice, and while that’s still within the realm of possibility based on what we’ve heard, it seems more complicated than that. Google also says that OEMs can put some phones in its Premier tier (eligible for full rev share) and other phones in…

Spotify isn’t the only one that negotiated with Google for special treatment. Netflix did, too. In 2017, Google offered Netflix a special discounted rate of 10 percent of its in-app payments on Android — meaning Netflix could keep 90 percent of the money — according to documents and testimony in the Epic v. Google trial. --- [Image: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BWuPfrcqypu5j4TYPVjr9Lz4K0Y=/0x0:2040x1360/2040x1360/filters:focal(1020x680:1021x681)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2…

On October 5th, we saw the first proof a refreshed Steam Deck was nigh. Now, Valve is officially revealing the $549 and up Steam Deck OLED, which starts shipping on November 16th. It’s an overhauled version of Valve’s handheld gaming PC but not one that’s focused on performance — the company is sticking with its plan not to produce a faster handheld for the next couple of years. Instead, the new Steam Deck OLED is designed to be the ultimate version of the original Steam Deck, the device that…

Good things often come to gamers who wait. There’s always a slimmer, more power-efficient PlayStation or Xbox on the way. Nintendo has long hammered out attractive new combos of size, screen, color, and battery life for its Game Boy, DS, and Switch. But Valve, with the new Steam Deck OLED, may have created the best console revision ever. It fixes my biggest complaints about Valve’s original handheld gaming PC and then some, without any new catch. Starting at $549 for 512GB of storage, it only…

After Google confirmed yesterday that it gave Spotify a sweetheart deal on Android app store fees, we were curious if dating company Bumble or any of the other 80 or so developers that have joined Google’s “User Choice Billing” program were similarly given an alternative arrangement or other sweeteners. Google spokesperson Dan Jackson would not answer our question. Jackson confirmed that “the standard service fee the developer pays is reduced by 4 percent” with User Choice Billing, and he poin…

King, Machine Zone, NCSoft, Aniplex, DeNA, Com2US, CyberAgent, Webzen, Colopl, and — I think it’s Playa or Playla, but it’s hard to make out on the screen — these developers all appear in an internal August 2019 document as receiving less value compared to the 30 percent Google charged ’em. Google estimated the average value the “top 100 most negative” devs were getting was just 19 percent. Simple math based on other slide deck numbers suggests the 100 devs overpaid $1.43 billion per year — Epi…

Is there something Google doesn’t want the world to know about its deal with Spotify? That’s what Google attorney Glenn Pomerantz suggested in Fortnite court this morning. Pomerantz argued that the court should seal portions of an upcoming exhibit revealing Google’s User Choice Billing agreement with Spotify — which lets Spotify use its own payment system for subscriptions while still giving Google a cut. “Disclosure of the Spotify deal would be very, very detrimental for the negotiation we’d b…