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orbemnews · 3 years

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Apple and Epic Head to Court Over Their Slices of the App Pie One Friday last August, Tim Sweeney, a billionaire game developer, sent an email to a contact at Microsoft: “You’ll enjoy the upcoming fireworks show.” A week later, Mr. Sweeney’s game Fortnite delivered good news to players on iPhones: They would get a discount on items in the game if they completed the purchases outside Apple’s payment systems. The change violated Apple’s rules and cut the iPhone maker off from collecting a commission on one of the world’s most popular games. Hours later, Apple kicked Fortnite off the App Store. Mr. Sweeney’s company, Epic Games, immediately sued Apple in federal court. It also began a public-relations broadside that was months in the works, complete with a trending #FreeFortnite hashtag and a parody of Apple’s iconic “1984” ad depicting Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, as an evil corporate overlord with an apple for a head. Epic’s attack was the most direct challenge to Apple’s power in years, and nine months later, the fight is heading to federal court in Oakland, Calif. On Monday, a trial is scheduled to open with testimony from Mr. Sweeney on why he believes Apple is a monopoly abusing its power. The trial, which is expected to last about three weeks, carries major implications. If Epic wins, it will upend the economics of the $100 billion app market and create a path for millions of companies and developers to avoid sending up to 30 percent of their app sales to Apple. An Epic victory would also invigorate the antitrust fight against Apple. Federal and state regulators are scrutinizing Apple’s control over the App Store, and on Friday, the European Union charged Apple with violating antitrust laws over its app rules and fees. Apple faces two other federal lawsuits about its App Store fees — one from developers and one from iPhone owners — that are seeking class-action status. Beating Apple would also bode well for Epic’s upcoming trial against Google over the same issues on the app store for Android devices. That case is expected to go to trial this year and would be decided by the same federal judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the Northern District of California. If Apple wins, however, it will strengthen its grip over mobile apps and stifle its growing chorus of critics, further empowering a company that is already the world’s most valuable and topped $200 billion in sales over just the past six months. The trial will center on a legal debate over whether Apple is a monopoly. Epic’s lawyers have argued that companies need iPhones to reach customers and that Apple unfairly forces app makers to use its payment system and pay its fees. Apple’s lawyers have responded that iPhones are merely one way to reach consumers and that Apple’s fees are in line with industry standards. Apple probably has the upper hand, legal experts said. Courts are often more sympathetic to defendants in antitrust trials, since companies have a right to choose with whom they do business. But Epic is arguing that Apple is using its position of power to stifle competition, a legal theory “that has worked and overcome that disadvantage,” said William Kovacic, a law professor at George Washington University. The Department of Justice made a similar argument against Microsoft in its antitrust suit two decades ago. The case might come down to one narrow technical question: What is the market these two are fighting over? Epic argues that the case is about iPhones and that Apple has a clear monopoly on them. Apple lawyers insist that the market in question includes all gaming platforms — from smartphones to video-game consoles to desktop computers — and that Apple hardly has a monopoly there. The answer will be up to Judge Gonzalez Rogers. And after she decides this case, she is set to hear the next two App Store lawsuits seeking class-action status. An Apple spokeswoman said in a statement that Apple’s top executives would show how the App Store had been good for the world. “We feel confident the case will prove that Epic purposefully breached its agreement solely to increase its revenues,” she said. Epic declined to comment. Project Liberty Fortnite, a battle royale video game, is the biggest hit of Epic’s 30 years in business. It got there, in part, because Mr. Sweeney pushed the companies behind the big gaming consoles — Microsoft, Sony Group and Nintendo — to let players battle each other across different devices, meaning a Microsoft Xbox owner could play a Sony PlayStation owner for the first time. In 2018, Epic released Fortnite in an iPhone app. In about two years, Epic earned roughly $1 billion from Fortnite and its other iPhone apps. But it had to pay about 30 percent of that to Apple. Epic was paying similar commissions to the gaming-console makers. Mr. Sweeney has said in interviews and on Twitter that he realized the app store commissions meant that Apple and Google could sometimes profit more on a game than the developers who had made it. He saw an opportunity to challenge the tech giants. Mr. Sweeney has also said he was OK paying commissions to companies like Microsoft and Nintendo because they sold their gaming consoles at or below cost and depend on the commissions, while Apple earns wide margins on all parts of its business. Other app makers were also starting to complain about the app stores, but Epic was one of the few with the money, willingness and independence to take on a fight in court. While the Chinese internet giant Tencent bought a large chunk of Epic in 2012, Mr. Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder. Investors recently valued Epic at $29 billion. But Epic is still tiny compared with Apple. In its latest quarter, Apple averaged about $30 billion in revenue a month. “If we let Apple and Google get away with this, in a few years they’re going to extend that monopoly to exercise a degree of power over people and companies which is completely unprecedented in human history,” Mr. Sweeney said in an interview last year. In 2019, Mr. Sweeney decided to confront Apple. Epic hired the law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore, tapped a public relations consultant, assigned 100 to 200 employees to the project, and created an alliance with other app makers “to ensure we’re not the only voice,” according to an Apple court filing. Epic named the effort Project Liberty. Last June, Mr. Sweeney emailed Mr. Cook and a few of his deputies, asking to release a competing marketplace for games on the iPhone and to use Epic’s own payment system instead of Apple’s, enabling it to circumvent Apple’s 30 percent cut. Apple’s lawyers responded, writing that the company wouldn’t turn the App Store “into a public utility.” Mr. Sweeney dropped the civility in his response. “It’s a sad state of affairs that Apple’s senior executives would hand Epic’s sincere request off to Apple’s legal team to respond with such a self-righteous and self-serving screed,” he wrote to Mr. Cook. “We will continue to pursue this, as we have done in the past to address other injustices in our industry.” Three weeks later, Mr. Sweeney sent his forecast for fireworks, according to an Apple court filing. Since then, lawyers for Epic and Apple have been telling different stories in court filings and to reporters. Apple has said it developed a world-changing product in the iPhone that led to an “economic miracle” in mobile apps. Apple has spent billions of dollars developing the iPhone and another $100 million on its App Store, the company said, and charging a commission on app sales is partly how it recoups that investment and keeps apps safe. Epic has countered that Apple’s commissions do very little for security. Epic is expected to call witnesses from other companies to testify on their experiences with the App Store, including an executive at Match Group, which makes the dating app Tinder. An executive at Facebook, which is locked in its own feud with Apple, had been scheduled to testify but dropped out. Apple has accused Epic of looking for a free ride. The game maker has not gone after other companies that distribute Fortnite. Microsoft, Samsung, Sony and Nintendo all charge the same commissions on games, according to a study funded by Apple. That study did not note that Apple popularized the 30 percent rate with the App Store in 2008. In response, Epic has pointed to the commission it charges in its own marketplace for game developers: 12 percent. After Epic sued, Apple halved its commission to 15 percent for developers that make less than $1 million on their apps. That new rate applies to about 98 percent of the developers that paid Apple’s commission, according to estimates from Sensor Tower, an app data firm. Yet it hardly affected Apple’s bottom line. According to Sensor Tower, more than 95 percent of Apple’s app revenues come from companies paying the full 30 percent rate. Source link Orbem News #app #APPLE #Court #Epic #Pie #Slices

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aion-rsa · 7 years

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X-ecutioners: X-Force’s 15 Deadliest Members

Ever since creators Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld launched “New Mutants” #100 in 1991, X-Force’s defining trait has been its aggressively proactive approach to protecting mutantkind. Even after the X-Men reluctantly took up a more militant stance under the leadership of Cyclops, X-Force also kicked its activities up a notch, becoming a black ops-style mutant kill squad designed to end potential threats before they escalated into real menaces.

RELATED: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Deadpool: The 15 Best Non-Deadpool Deadpools

Distinguished from the rest of the X-Men by a willingness (some would argue an expectation) to use deadly force on their missions, it’s no wonder “Deadpool 2” writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have been tapped to lay the groundwork for a future “X-Force” film. With Cable and Domino already confirmed to appear in the blockbuster sequel, can an “X-Force” movie be far behind? With that question in mind, we couldn’t help but compile a list of X-Force’s most dangerous members.

SPOILER ALERT! Spoilers ahead for numerous stories published by Marvel Comics.

DEATHLOK

Thanks to the perils of time travel, alternate realities and liberal retcons, there have been several versions of Deathlok over the years. The Deathlok-Prime who joined X-Force after the death of his creator first appeared in “Weapon X” #11 and hailed from a parallel universe, where the evil mega-corporation Roxxon had taken over the world. Prime was the product of a clandestine Weapon Plus program that successfully used reanimated corpses to create an army of cyborg super soldiers and secure a potential future timeline policed by the Deathlok Nation.

His cybernetic enhancements and ability to accurately predict highly-probable future timelines make him a dangerous foe, but what chills us to the bone about Deathlok is his onboard A.I.’s ability to cede control to his psychotic serial killer host. Eventually, he would take a position teaching the next generation of X-Men at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, which we’re sure seemed like a good idea at the time. Anybody want to sign up for Serial Killing 101? We thought not.

SHATTERSTAR

This founding member of X-Force first appeared in “New Mutants” #99 as a refugee from a future Mojoworld tasked with bringing the X-Men back to his home dimension to help him liberate his people from Mojo’s twisted, despotic rule. A highly-skilled warrior raised in Mojo’s gladiatorial arenas, Shattterstar is the progeny of the mutant Dazzler and Longshot, himself a legendary revolutionary who fought against Mojo’s regime and the beneficiary of some of his son’s DNA, making Shatterstar his own grandfather. Probably best not to think on that fact too much. Thankfully, neither of his parents remembers his birth due to some convenient time travelling hijinks.

None of this makes Shatterstar particularly dangerous, simply a little weird and overwrought. What does make him dangerous is his willingness to use deadly force whenever necessary without a second thought, a precedent that was set early in his tenure with X-Force. Just ask Reaper of the Mutant Liberation Front. Shatterstar used his trademark double-bladed swords to dismember the mutant terrorist on three separate occasions.

FERAL

Another Nicieza-Liefeld creation who debuted in the seminal “New Mutants” #99, Feral was definitely a product of her times, an early example of the bloodthirsty antihero archetype that seemed a staple of virtually every comic published during the ‘90s. At least her codename didn’t have the word “blood” in it, although it easily could have, judging by her love of violence. A mutant born with innate lion-like abilities and an untameable personality in keeping with her name, Feral clawed her way free of a horrific upbringing by murdering her father and mother. She also may have been complicit in the deaths of two younger siblings, but no evidence exists pointing to their murders.

Like many bestial comic book characters, Feral struggled to keep her animalistic tendencies in check. Tragically, she never really found the knack in the same way Wolverine or even her sister Thornn did. However, it was this unpredictability and hair-trigger temper that made her so deadly, something her teammates learned early on, when she nearly disembowelled teammate Cannonball during a simple training exercise.

MARROW

Like our last entry, Marrow was another example of ‘90s comics sensibilities taken to their furthest logical (or illogical) conclusion. Once again seemingly based on the Wolverine antihero archetype, Marrow was created by Jeph Loeb and David Brewer, and first appeared in “Cable” #15 as a member of the mutant terrorist group called Gene Nation. Born with the ability to control the growth of her bones, Marrow was raised amongst the Morlocks in a brutal alternate dimension, gaining her membership in Mikhail Rasputin’s Gene Nation by literally killing her way to the top of the heap. As a member of Gene Nation, Marrow launched a brutal terrorist campaign on normal humans.

Upon joining up with the X-Men, she struggled to control her murderous tendencies. Her greatest claim to fame while with the team was shoving one of her patented bone knives into Wolverine’s throat during a sparring session. Although she lost her powers during Decimation, a re-empowered Marrow joined Cable’s reformed X-Force team. During their battle with Volga, the man who re-powered her, it was revealed that a despondent Marrow tragically lost her unborn child during the process to regain her powers.

DOMINO

The woman known as Domino was created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld (surprise, surprise) and first appeared in “X-Force” #8. Although a mutant, Domino’s birth wasn’t random. Her birth is the result of a clandestine government-sponsored breeding program dedicated to the creation of the Perfect Weapon. Domino shares a long history with X-Force founder Cable, serving beside him in Six Pack, his old mercenary outfit. She’s been a fixture of various X-Force teams over the years, often serving as leader during Cable’s frequent absences during her initial tenure with the group.

Although Domino’s powers are subconscious by nature, typically activated when she’s threatened by impending injury, her mutant abilities aren’t what makes her so dangerous. As one of the most accomplished mercenary spies in the biz, it’s Domino’s no-nonsense attitude and willingness to make the hard choices that make her so deadly. During her time with Six Pack, the unit was known for mowing down crowds of people to achieve their goals. Her ruthlessness is perhaps best illustrated by her assassination of Flagsmasher, which paved the way for Cable’s liberation of the 198 mutants who survived M-Day.

SPIRAL

Arguably the most purely evil entry on our list, perennial X-Men villain Spiral first appeared in “Longshot” #1, created by Ann Nocenti and Art Adams. Spiral was once the Earthborn stuntwoman “Ricochet” Rita Wayword who was transformed by Mojo, the ruler of the Mojoverse, after she attempted to help her friend Longshot overthrow the tyrant’s all-powerful dictatorship. She was then sent back to the past to attack Longshot and her younger self. A six-armed cyborg sorceress with the ability to traverse the multiverse, Rita’s drastic physical transformation paled in comparison to the damage done to her mind, after it was expanded to perceive multiple dimensions.

She is an extremely powerful sorceress – one of seven who were flagged as potential successors to Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange – who combines science and magic to startling effect. After Mojo exiled her to Earth for failing to kill Longshot, Spiral opened up the Body Shoppe, manufacturing cybernetic limbs and weapons systems for various clients including the Reavers and Lady Deathstrike. Although later retcons would transfer the Reavers creation to Donald Pierce, there was no undoing the alternate timeline Spiral conquered, where she was known as the Apocalypse after killing most of the world’s heroes and mutants.

BISHOP

First appearing in “Uncanny X-Men” #282, the time-displaced mutant known as Bishop was born in dystopian alternate reality, where mutants were branded and forced into detention camps. After the Summers Rebellion freed mutantkind from their Sentinel–backed human overlords, Bishop joined the X.S.E. (the Xavier Security Enforcers) in an attempt to police his own kind. It was during one of his X.S.E. missions that Bishop was transported to the primary Marvel 616 continuity, where he became a valued member of the X-Men. Plagued by the memories of his horrific future, Bishop’s outlook was dramatically altered by the events of M-Day.

Although he was one of the lucky few to retain his mutant abilities post-Decimation, became more zealous in his defense of mutantkind, culminating in his attempt to kill the first mutant born after M-Day, whom he believed would usher in his dystopian timeline. After Cable saved the baby from Bishop, the pair embarked on a cross-time war of attrition, which Bishop willingly escalated into mass murder, thanks to numerous traps scattered throughout the timeline that killed millions. Now, that’s freaking deadly.

WARPATH

The younger brother of legendary X-Man Thunderbird, James Proudstar first appeared as one the Hellions in “New Mutants” #14. Under the tutelage of Emma Frost, James rose to leader of the Hellions but left the group for Cable’s first X-Force team, feeling like he no longer fit in to the Hellfire Club’s teenaged mutant strike force. Under Cable’s direction, James honed his fighting skills and underwent a sustained power boost that saw his enhanced senses and strength increase exponentially. Now far more powerful than his brother ever was, James finally stepped out of his long shadow, taking the name Warpath. It was an appropriate name choice considering his future career path.

After the events of M-Day, the protection of the few remaining empowered mutants became the X-Men’s priority, so James was tapped for a membership on the new version of X-Force that was created to target and eliminate threats to mutantkind with extreme prejudice. He was finally able to lay his brother’s soul to rest during the events of Necrosha, plunging the vampiric Black Queen’s own knife into her chest, killing her (for the time being, at least).

PSYLOCKE

In a medium noted for its love of retcons, reboots and resurrections, there are perhaps few heroes who have changed as drastically as Psylocke. The mutant telepathic sister of Captain Britain, Betsy Braddock first appeared way back in 1976 in “Captain Britain” #8. Originally, Betsy was your typical telepath, with very little to distinguish her from others of her ilk, aside from a brief stint as Captain Britain. After a run-in with the Marauders during the Mutant Massacre, Psylocke joined the X-Men and was with them when they “died” after passing through the Siege Perilous. Betsy would resurface in Madripoor, where she would undergo her most dramatic transformation after the Hand transferred her consciousness into the body of one of their most feared assassins.

Betsy was effectively transformed into a telepathic Elektra capable of skewering your psyche at the same time that she’s skewering your body. Her new abilities naturally made her a perfect choice for various incarnations of X-Force. During the “Dark Angel Saga,” Betsy showed her willingness to make the hard calls, when she stabbed her lover Archangel with the Life Seed, killing him and preventing his ascension into the role of Apocalypse.

FANTOMEX

Fantomex is quite possibly the most unpredictable entry on our list. His vaguely defined abilities, narcissistic personality and connections to the Weapon Plus program ensure even his teammates aren’t entirely sure what side he’s really on. Created by Grant Morrison and Igor Kordey during their classic run on “New X-Men,” Fantomex is the product of decades of Weapon Plus research, the same program responsible for the creation of everyone from Captain America to Wolverine. Sharing the Canucklehead’s patented healing factor and enhanced senses, Fantomex also possesses three brains, an external nervous system in the form of EVA and the ability to cast convincing illusions.

Although he’s shown moments of selflessness, Fantomex is at his core a survivalist and a cold-blooded killer, willing to follow through on threats even his fellow X-Force assassins thought crossed the line. In the events leading up to the “Dark Angel Saga”, Fantomex was the only one with the intestinal fortitude to pull the trigger on the infant clone of Apocalypse, after his teammates decided to save him. He eventually went insane after gaining god-like new abilities, prompting Hope Summers and his former lover Psylocke to fry his brains.

WOLVERINE (LAURA KINNEY)

Laura Kinney first appeared as the teenaged killing machine X-23 in the pages of “NYX” #4, created by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost. A clone created from the damaged genetic material of her “father” Wolverine, Laura struggles to reconcile her conflicting human and bestial natures, in much the same way as the long-time X-Man. She was trained to be the ultimate killing machine by her creators in the Weapon Plus splinter cell known as the Facility, who initiated her murderous tendencies with genetically-implanted trigger scents.

Although she would seemingly overcome her trigger scent programming, Laura would continue to use lethal force throughout her career. This is perhaps best illustrated by her assassination of Matthew Risman, a mutant-hating Purifier she initially tried to kill by secretly planting explosives around his base, without informing her teammates. Although the destruction of his headquarters failed to kill him, Laura completed the mission the old-fashioned way, with a bullet to the brain. Thankfully, Laura has been far less reckless ever since taking up the mantle of Wolverine, far more concerned with living up to her late father’s noble legacy.

DEADPOOL

If there’s anybody left on the face of the planet who doesn’t know the Merc with a Mouth, then they’re likely already a victim of the infamous “dead pool.” Created by Louise Simonson and Rob Liefeld, Wade Wilson first appeared in the now-classic “New Mutants” #98 as a future adversary of Cable’s inaugural X-Force team. Although it would take several years for the Deadpool we all know and love to evolve from the one-dimensional villain that plagued his future teammates, Deadpool’s willingness to eliminate targets and rivals alike has always been one of the character’s defining characteristics.

As his blockbuster movie admirably showcased, Deadpool doesn’t just kill people for the sake of expedience. He revels in racking up the body counts in the most inventive ways possible. Driven mad by the process that gave him a suped-up version of Wolverine’s healing factor, Deadpool’s talent for killing is only outstripped by his sadistically comical monologues. Although he’s been the victim of recent attempts to tone down his violent nature in the wake of his monstrous mainstream popularity, there’s no keeping a good merc down and we’re confident he’ll continue to tear up the Marvel Universe with his signature zeal for manic destruction.

WOLVERINE (JAMES HOWLETT)

“I’m the best there is at what I do but what I do isn’t very nice.” While that statement may not be entirely true for this list, there are few other entries who’ve racked up the body count that the original Wolverine has since his first appearance in the iconic “Incredible Hulk” #180. Blessed with enhanced animal senses, retractable adamantium claws and a robust mutant healing factor that has allowed him to survive virtually any injury, Wolverine was a natural born killer in every sense of the word. With innate abilities honed by decades of military training, Wolverine was also one of the most accomplished hand-to-hand combatants in the Marvel Universe, up until his recent death in the appropriately titled “Death of Wolverine” #4.

And yet, none of that is what made him one of the most dangerous men on the planet. Rather, it was his willingness to do whatever was necessary to deliver the killing blow that gave his enemies cause to fear. Case in point: When Cyclops shut X-Force down, it was Wolverine who kept it running on the down-low as little more than an assassination squad.

ARCHANGEL

For years, Warren Worthington III was the dreamy poster boy for human-mutant relations. Along with Beast and perhaps Iceman, he was an integral member of the wider Marvel superhero community, serving as a founding member of both the original Champions and the New Defenders. As a founding member of the X-Men, the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby creation functioned as a key player in several major mutant story arcs. It wasn’t until he lost his original feathered wings during a vicious attack by the Marauders during the notorious Mutant Massacre, that his character took a drastic turn for the worse.

Drafted as the Horseman Death by Apocalypse, Warren embarked on a terrifying campaign of destruction that saw him irrevocably changed physically and mentally by the experience. As a member of X-Force, he was an unpredictable teammate, murdering hundreds of flying Purifiers in a blind rage after the re-emergence of his techno-organic wings. During the “Dark Angel Saga,” the depth of Apocalypse’s malevolent genetic manipulation was revealed, with Warren even having to be put down by his former lover Psylocke after he threatened to become the new Apocalypse. Although he’s since been resurrected with no memory of his past life, it remains to be seen how angelic he truly is.

CABLE

He’s the man with the plan; the X-Men’s very own mutant Captain America. Without Nathan Summers, the man who would come to be known as Cable, mutantkind likely would’ve perished years ago. Created by a comic book brain trust that includes Chris Claremont, Louise Simonson and Rob Liefeld, Cable first appeared as an adult in the pages of “New Mutants” #86. As the offspring of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, Cable was shunted into the future as an infant to protect him from the machinations of Mr. Sinister.

Over time, Cable evolved into an accomplished soldier, who plied his trade in the present as the leader of Six Pack, a mercenary unit notorious for their brutal tactics. He was instrumental in promoting a new more militant approach to protecting mutantkind, resulting in the formation of the original X-Force. His role as guardian of the future of his species remains his defining trait, driving him into conflict with everyone from the Avengers to his own friends and colleagues in the X-Men. A man on a never-ending mission who is always willing to make the killing blow even if it means his own life, there is no more dangerous member of X-Force than its founding father.

What do you mean we didn’t “execute” this list properly? Let us know who we missed in the comments!

The post X-ecutioners: X-Force’s 15 Deadliest Members appeared first on CBR.com.

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