Epic Games

Following the September ruling by US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Epic-Apple lawsuit, Apple appealed and asked for a stay on the injunction in early October, reports AppleInsider. In a new filing to the court, Apple said it is done some of what the court asked, but still wants the rest of it put on hold.

The game will be a digital version and the physical version of the 'The Definitive Edition' will be released on December 7, reports GizmoChina. The company previously said it is also planning to launch on mobile devices later in 2022. Rockstar games have shared a short clip of the GTA trilogy game on YouTube. It appears that the graphics in the game are more modern compared to the original graphics.

"The custom Xbox Series X consoles celebrate Nickelodeon characters in the designs. The Leonardo-inspired console features the visage of the iconic hero alongside his favourite food: pizza! Inspired by the playfulness of the world's most lovable sponge, the custom console perfectly brings to life SpongeBob SquarePants in its shape and feel," the company said in a statement.

"It's a split decision," Stanford don Mark Lemley, who studies antitrust issues and technology, put it succinctly to NPR. "It will improve competition on the edges, but it's not the fundamental change that Epic and advocates of the antitrust case would have hoped for." NPR discloses a funding relationship with Apple.

The video game maker had earlier tweeted that it has asked Apple to restore its "Fortnite" developer account and that it plans to relaunch the game on Apple's mobile operating system in South Korea in light of a new legislation that effectively allows alternative in-app payment systems on app stores. Epic's "Fortnite" was removed from Apple's App Store last year after the game maker introduced its own direct payment system to circumvent Apple's commissions.

The company said Houseparty will be discontinued in October when the app will stop functioning for its existing users; it will be pulled from the app stores on Thursday. Related to this move, Epic Games' "Fortnite Mode" feature, which leveraged Houseparty to bring video chat to Fortnite gamers, will also be discontinued, reports TechCrunch. Founded in 2015, Houseparty offered a way for users to participate in group video chats with friends and even play games, like Uno, trivia, Heads Up and others.

As part of the outpouring of criticism against Apple, Sweeney took to Twitter to complain about Apple's initiative, reports AppleInsider. "I've tried hard to see this from Apple's point of view," Sweeney wrote on Twitter. "But inescapably, this is government spyware installed by Apple based on a presumption of guilt. Though Apple wrote the code, its function is to scan personal data and report it to the government," he added.

According to newly unsealed court filings seen by The Verge, Google allegedly offered a "special deal" to launch Fortnite back on Android Store. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney tweeted on Friday that this was "unbeknownst to us at the time, and because of the court's protective order we're just finding out now about Google's consideration of buying Epic to shut down our efforts to compete with Google Play".

The bill seeks to ban app market operators from forcing certain payment systems on developers by unfairly using their position. The bill, which would be the first of its kind globally if voted into law, currently awaits further review by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee before being handed off for a wider vote by the National Assembly.Mark Buse, Match Group's senior vice president and a founding member of the Coalition for App Fairness.

Apple's main trial activity with Epic finished in May, with both sides now awaiting a decision from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on the matter. While the wait continues, Apple's lawyers are taking advantage of a Supreme Court decision to help its case, AppleInsider reported. The filing, spotted by Stephen Totilo, refers to the decision on the case of the National Collegiate Athletic Association v Alston, et al.