Plus Apple and Google lose an Australian competition lawsuit and the world's worst games convention had a camel
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Smith, Adam Christou, Chris Button and Naomi Jackson. Cat Jahne is Social Producer, Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER.
NAOMI: Hi I’m Naomi Jackson
FIONA: and I’m Fiona Bartholomaeus
NAOMI: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
FIONA: Apple and Google lose a competition lawsuit in Australia, Pokémon fans in Japan ruin it for everyone trying to snag rare cards and there’s a new contender for world’s worst games convention.
Here is the news for Sunday 17th of August. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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FIONA: Massive companies Apple and Google were just ruled against in federal court on Tuesday, after Judge Jonathan Beach found that both companies had broken the law.
He found that the companies had engaged in anti competitive conduct, misusing their power in the market in the way that they run both of their app stores.
NAOMI: Justice Beach also ruled on 2 cases brought forward by Fortnite developer Epic Games, finding that Google and Apple used that same market power to reduce competition.
Epic has already said they are planning on returning Fortnite to the App Stores in response to this decision.
Hopefully all of this will result in better prices for apps, and it’s possible it’ll open up the market for alternative app stores to pop up as well like it has done in Europe where similar cases have occurred.
FIONA: These rulings clear the way for 2 class action lawsuits covering both 15 million people who bought apps from these stores and the developers of around 150 thousand apps.
The exact amount of compensation will be determined in another hearing, but this is quite a big development.
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FIONA: McDonalds in Japan had to end its special Pokémon promotion early thanks to people being incredible jerks with extreme demand and wasted food.
The promotion offered 6 exclusive Pokémon cards which featured a new printing of the characters and a special McDonald’s stamp, and you could get these in Pokémon themed Happy Meals.
Of course it quickly descended into chaos when people tried to catch 'em all, rushing into their local McDonalds and purchasing heaps of Happy Meals in order to get the set.
NAOMI: McDonald’s did limit purchases to five sets per customer, however many buyers, some reportedly from outside Japan, exploited loopholes to place multiple mobile orders and then resell the cards upwards of 2,000 yen or about $21 AUD.
It ended with so much wasted food left on the streets, massive lines outside the shop and even the police were called to some locations due to tensions between regular customers and scalpers.
There were also reports of boxes of the cards being illegally sold by employees.
The promotion was meant to last 3 days but was cancelled after just 1.
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NAOMI: “A camel and no games” is how attendees are describing a disastrous games expo held in Florida.
The first year of the National Games Expo, promised encounters with the voice actors of Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Mortal Kombat, as well as the former voices behind Peach and Bowser, and a lot more.
But much of that cast didn't end up showing and the attendees who had paid 40 American dollars for a single day ticket were left with a barren showfloor with only a small amount of vendors, which according to attendees included a health insurance vendor and t-mobile and few to do with gaming.
FIONA: But Nom, the show floor did include at least one interesting attraction, a petting zoo including a camel and a few farm animals. It’s no sad ball pit, but it’s close.
The event’s organisers asserted in a phone interview with IGN that people don't attend a convention for the vendors, they come for talent and that some of that cast failing to show up was the fault of the talent booking agencies involved.
One of those agencies Celebworx said in a reply statement to IGN that they were forced to cancel after the promoter refused to rectify issues with meeting contractual obligations and that the organisers could have notified people about the cancellations considering they had been informed 8 days before the event.
NAOMI: Organiser Michael Wittenberg has promised to refund purchasers of photos due to the photographer not showing up and Sunday tickets due to significant missing talent but won’t refund Friday or Saturday tickets.
A few of the actors involved have spoken out including Ned Luke who acted as Michael De Santa in GTA 5 who said “-the guy who ran it was a con artist, he put the con in comic-con.”
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NAOMI: And Snoopy is back with a new game called Snoopy & The Great Mystery Club.
It’s a super cute 3D puzzle game where you play as Snoopy, teaming up with Charlie Brown and his friends to solve mysteries like missing kites or the Lake Ness Monster.
You create a team of four and each character brings a special skill to the mystery club.
Snoopy looks so adorable in his detective cap and you best believe our resident Snoopy fan Cat is so excited about this.
FIONA: There are heaps of mini games, you can explore all iconic locations like Charlie Brown’s House and you can switch between Snoopy’s personas such as Detective, Beagle Scout, Fierce Pirate and more, to solve puzzles with tools like a leaf blower, or metal detector.
It’s set to come out this year on October 10th and will be available on current gen consoles.
Cat isn’t on the show today, so in her place I’d like to remind you to vote for Snoopy’s Magic Show on our instagram. Will anyone beat Snoopy and become the best game of all time? Check it out on SifterHQ.
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NAOMI: That’s it for the headlines…Here are the games coming out this week.
FIONA: Out on the 20th is Sword of the Sea by Abzu developer Giant Squid. It’s an atmospheric surfing adventure game where you surf across waves of sand on a quest to restore a lost ocean. This game looks so stunning and also has its music composed by award-winning Austin Wintory. That’s out on Wednesday on PC and PlayStation 5.
NAOMI: Also out on Wednesday is Discounty. It’s a fun shop management sim where you manage a discount supermarket, get caught up in small-town drama, plan out your shop's layout, and strike trade deals to expand the business. Grab it on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X\S and PC on the 20th.
FIONA: And out on the 22nd is Kill the Music. It’s a rhythm action roguelite about defeating hordes of enemies with musical instruments. Help Roxie and her band battle Death’s minions with the power of music when it releases on PC on Friday.
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PROMO: Articles to read, videos to watch and podcasts to listen to on sifter.com.au
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FIONA: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus.
NAOMI: And my name is Naomi Jackson, thank you so much for listening.
FIONA: Hey if you’ve enjoyed this episode and you’ve found it randomly, make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube or on your favourite podcast player, then turn on notifications so you don’t miss a thing. We’ve got heaps of new episodes coming out all the time and subscribing for free and turning on notifications is the best way to make sure you catch em all like a McDonald’s Pokémon card promotion.
NAOMI: SIFTER is produced by myself, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Cat Jahne, Kyle Pauletto, Adam Christou, Courtney Smith and Chris Button. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and video editor, and Gianni Di Giovanni is SIFTER’s Executive Producer, and script editor.
FIONA: Thanks to Brian Fairbanks from Salty Dog Sounds for composing the Walkthrough theme tune, and Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER’s podcasts.
NAOMI: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday, see you then.
