Fortnite to Return to iOS via Nvidia GeForce Now Streaming Service

[andresr]

I didn’t mean nvidias GeForce now I meant playing fortnite on anything like this for iOS,

just it’s not appropriate for idiotic Epic to have this chance to use Nvidias system to not only have access to iOS again but to bypass Apple’s 30% thing.. sorry again I hope Apple prevents Nvidia from somehow having Fortnite given the legal action happening

Eh, it's not that big of a deal.

Web Apps have always been an option to make. Heck, it should be the default, instead of regular apps. But apps have a store, which makes distribution and marketing much, much easier. That's why Epic wants to open up the iOS ecosystem.

If Apple goes against Epic (and nVidias for that matter) while on the web, it is a monopolistic attack, and that will sink Apple's position.

 

[4jasontv]

Have you ever used GeForce Now? As long as you don't have a janky internet connection is lag free.

You just described most of the world's internet.

 

[Bogos]

Eh, it's not that big of a deal.

Web Apps have always been an option to make. Heck, it should be the default, instead of regular apps. But apps have a store, which makes distribution and marketing much, much easier. That's why Epic wants to open up the iOS ecosystem.

If Apple goes against Epic (and nVidias for that matter) while on the web, it is a monopolistic attack, and that will sink Apple's position.

I truly don't see how Apple could do anything to prevent geforce now web client to load inside safari.

 

[grjj]

Great for Epic. Shows that Apple clearly is on the wrong patch with their insane 30% fee and will not be able to enforce it in the future.

Where does the idea that "Apple's 30% is insane" come from when pretty much every other platform charges the same fee?

 

[Kuro Tanaka]

If true it would demonstrate that Apple doesn't have a monopoly on the iOS platform. That is good news for Apple.

 

[macdogpro]

For those who play the game, does it actually still has many players?
I mean since they’re not available officially on Google Play either. So it comes down to Console and PC players right?
I never got the chance to try it, but I’m playing Call of Duty Mobile now.

 

[trim]

This is a good workaround for Epic, but will it realistically work on people's phones once they are finally going out and about? The chances that they have a strong consistent connection when not on wi-fi is really low and as it's streaming the game, the data use is going to be through the roof.

 

[Maven1975]

Not so fast Epic!!!

Apple has the right to reject the use of that IP though any methods they deem fit. (Especially since use case is identical)

Epic is the one that opened litigation. This will be the exact same reason Apple has the right to block it. (Open litigation)

They not only fell on their face, but they knocked their teeth out in the process.

 

[ruka.snow]

This is a good workaround for Epic, but will it realistically work on people's phones once they are finally going out and about? The chances that they have a strong consistent connection when not on wi-fi is really low and as it's streaming the game, the data use is going to be through the roof.

It's an online game, if they don't have a steady connection to stream it then they wont have a steady connection to play it.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

It's been like that since 2008, why complain now?

Sometimes things take time to build up a head of steam.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

But how much are they paying Nvidia?

I'm willing to bet, a lot less than 30%. Especially considering this is worth a lot to Nvidia, as it's a flagship game that's (currently) exclusive to them on iOS, and that will be worth a lot of marketing for them. So probably a hell of a lot less than 30%.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

My kids cared, for about 13 seconds. They moved on to Among Us.

My son has a PS4, so he never cared about the Apple fight. He used to be mega addicted to Fortnight, like most kids worldwide, but got bored of it quite a while ago (like most kids I presume) and moved on to other games. I think Epic already made most of their cash from it, and are picking the fight now in a lull while they work on their next blockbuster.

 

[trim]

It's an online game, if they don't have a steady connection to stream it then they wont have a steady connection to play it.

There's a difference in the connection required to stream a game and just play the game online when all the assets are already on the phone. So they could have a connection that can play the game fine, but not stream it

 

[genovelle]

Curious how Apple is gonna try to suck out money out of them this time...

That’s just it. Apple doesn’t care if they use a web browser. Apple has hundreds of millions of free games available on their platform as a courtesy. They key is, if you make money from their platform and profit from their marketing and tools, you pay 30%. If you don’t need their support you can build your own stand allow platform that the customer can access via a web browser and you pay nothing to Apple. You are at that point not benefiting from their work so they could care less

 

[farewelwilliams]

Steve also said people were holding their phones wrong. Not everything that comes from Apple is gospel truth, their support for the web is orders of magnitude more limited than their app store support in ways that can stop it from being a viable option.

you’re missing the point. OP was talking as if Apple didn’t anticipate the web from being a viable option for developers to move to. i’m saying Apple has supported this option since the beginning and has no problem if apps move to the web.

 

[Bootes]

For those who play the game, does it actually still has many players?
I mean since they’re not available officially on Google Play either. So it comes down to Console and PC players right?
I never got the chance to try it, but I’m playing Call of Duty Mobile now.

It’s an extremely popular game. That is why Epic is trying to use it to push what they want.

 

[dynamojoe]

For those who play the game, does it actually still has many players?
I mean since they’re not available officially on Google Play either. So it comes down to Console and PC players right?
I never got the chance to try it, but I’m playing Call of Duty Mobile now.

I'm still playing it. I'm stuck in last season on my iPad, which means I can't play with or against my kids since they are in the current season on Playstation. It's still a good way to blow off steam.

But I play on a 2018 iPad Pro 12" and it's nowhere near as crispy as the PS version. I can't imagine running this in Safari would be anything other than muddy, laggy, battery-munching crap. But hey, I guess we'll see.

 

[amartinez1660]

I've already written 3D javascript based games for iOS. Latency isn't at all a problem. You can go fullscreen when you're landscape but in portrait the time and connection/battery/status icons will always be there (at least on pre-iPhone X). There's a few gestures you can't do because they trigger stuff in Safari. Possibly this can be mitigated by recommending players to use a 3rd party browser from the App Store.

The biggest issue is that I don't think there's a good way to manage audio playback. Last I checked, everything is too high level and geared towards just playing one clip at a time, with some uncontrollable delays. There's nothing for positioning audio sources in 3D space (so dynamically changing the stereo mix) or otherwise layering multiple sounds together.

I think he means latency of the streaming video nature, it’s never close to instant (one or two frames late if double buffered) when directly from a GPU on your hands. Pretty much like OnLive, Stadia and PSNow suffer from time to time... shooters are the most hampered by it.

 

[LongWayHome]

Clearly you never used geforce now before, any game you play in the platform requires 0 preload of content for playing. Everything is streamed as video to the client. Games are not run in the device but their content run remotely and streamed to the browser (or desktop app).

Yeah I'm sure everyone who has slow to barely decent internet speed it will run beautifully!!!

 

[jole]

This is great for Apple. There is little legal argument for App Story being monopoly when one can show that Fortnite runs just fine as web app installed to your home screen.

(yes, server-side rendering, network dependency, latency, ... all those are technical details that should not be relevant in the legal dispute.)

 

[boss.king]

Yeah I'm sure everyone who has slow to barely decent internet speed it will run beautifully!!!

If they have bad internet it wouldn't have been worth playing even as a native app. It's an online game, what are you not getting about that?

 

[Maximara]

If they have bad internet it wouldn't have been worth playing even as a native app. It's an online game, what are you not getting about that?

Not all on-line games are created equal. A retro online game with 8-bit graphic will behave reasonably well on a connection that would bring a game with "modern" graphics to its knees.

 

[boss.king]

Not all on-line games are created equal. A retro online game with 8-bit graphic will behave reasonably well on a connection that would bring a game with "modern" graphics to its knees.

But we're talking about a very specific, non-retro, non-8-bit game.

 

[davidjytang]

If Apple starts blocking websites in Safari for business reasons, they will have some serious problems with the US and EU with regards to antitrust.

bUt cOmPaNy hAs FuLL cOnTroL oVeR tHeiR oWn pRoDucT!

 

[ikir]

Great for Epic. Shows that Apple clearly is on the wrong patch with their insane 30% fee and will not be able to enforce it in the future.

They pay 30% to Nvidia now for a much smaller audience