Fortnite

Disneyland is going to “Fortnite.”

Launching Thursday, “Disneyland Game Rush” is a new island that will bring some of the Happiest Place on Earth’s most popular rides into the “Fortnite” sandbox for the first time. A part of Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebration, the limited-time experience includes mini-games inspired by attractions such as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones Adventure, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout! and Haunted Mansion.

The in-game island will also feature a replica of the 70th anniversary sculpture inspired by Sleeping Beauty Castle as well as glimpses of the theme park’s familiar landmarks including the Incredicoaster and Pixar Pal-a-Round across the virtual skyline. Players who complete the island’s mini-games will collect keys that can be used to unlock Disneyland 70th-themed island-exclusive cosmetics so players will be able to show their Disney spirit.

“Fortnite” players can access the island by searching for Disneyland Game Rush or using island code 4617-4819-8826.

“Disneyland Game Rush” marks the latest Disney-affiliated “Fortnite” crossover since Walt Disney Co. acquired a stake in Epic Games in 2024. Earlier this year “Fortnite” launched “Galactic Battle,” which was billed as its biggest Star Wars-themed tie-in, as well as a “Simpsons”-themed battle royale mini-season that kicked off earlier this month.

Still to come is Disney and Epic Games’ interconnected “games and entertainment universe,” which will include brands such as Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar and Avatar. This “new persistent universe” was announced last year.

Connectivity issues for many companies around the world disrupted as outage hits Amazon Web Services.

Want to get Generation Alpha into movie theaters? Look to video games.

Kids still like to go to the movies, according to a high-profile new research report. But the franchises they care about are not the traditional Hollywood popcorn fare.

Seven of the top 10 entertainment franchises that the youngest generation of moviegoers cares about are video game properties, according to a recent study by National Research Group (NRG).

The top five titles that Gen Alpha kids, generally considered to be those ages 12 and under, say they talk most about were Roblox, “Minecraft,” “Fortnite,” “Grand Theft Auto” and “Pokémon,” all of which originated from the world of video games. The highest-ranked non-video game property was Marvel and Walt Disney Co.’s “The Avengers,” at No. 6.

Studios have started to catch on. Spring’s “A Minecraft Movie,” based on the popular game where users build and explore different worlds, was such a huge success. The film, adapted by Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment for the big screen, grossed $955 million at the global box office, according to Comscore. Young fans packed the theater, cheering during scenes important to gamers.

“Gaming is a deeply important part of Gen Alpha culture because it provides an essential venue for socialization,” said Fergus Navaratnam-Blair, NRG’s vice president of trends and futures. “Social gaming platforms like Roblox and Fortnite give them the opportunity to spend time with their friends, build communities, and develop a sense of their own identity.”

That could present a shift in the way theaters and studios cater to Gen Alpha, a key demographic born 2013 onward, to their future survival. Compared with millennials and Gen X, a higher percentage of Gen Alpha members (38%) said they would see a movie in a theater instead of waiting for it to come to a streaming service if their friends were talking about it, NRG said.

Nearly 60% of Gen Alpha members said they enjoy watching movies in theaters more than at home, according to NRG, which surveyed more than 6,000 U.S. moviegoers in May and June of this year. The majority of kids surveyed ages 6-to-12 said the reason why they go to the theater is to spend time with friends and family and “to make seeing the movie feel like a special event,” according to NRG.

“We are seeing the signs within this demographic that they do really value the experience of watching movies in theaters,” Navaratnam-Blair said. “The fact that they have grown up surrounded by phones, tablets, other sorts of devices, if anything, that seems to have made them more appreciative of the opportunities that they do get to switch up from all of that.”

Stories that resonate with Gen Alpha can come from franchises they are already familiar with, like “Minecraft,” or ones such as “Wicked” that inspire them to create fan fiction or show off their fandom by dressing up like the characters, he said.

Already, studios are marketing their films to reach younger consumers on platforms they frequent including Roblox and TikTok.

Movie theaters can help cater to Gen Alpha by making the viewing an experience, such as selling food that is matched to what characters are eating on screen, Navaratnam-Blair said.

Younger audiences also can still be attracted to seeing a movie in a theater if it’s a special event that happens after the title has started streaming. For example, many people attended sing-along showings of the popular animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” in theaters even after streaming it first on Netflix. The sing-along version of the film was the No. 1 movie domestically during the weekend it was briefly in theaters, with an estimated $18 million in ticket sales.

“This is a generation that does offer hope for the future of theatrical moviegoing,” Navaratnam-Blair said. “We just need to understand what it is they’re looking for, that experience, and play into it in a way that gives them what they’re looking for out of that.”

Aug. 12 (UPI) — Epic Games said its popular Fortnite video game will return to iOS platforms in Australia after its high court ruled on Tuesday that Google and Apple’s dominance over the digital marketplace was anticompetitive.

Australian federal Judge Jonathan Beach ruled that both Google and Apple had misused their positions as the dominant players over in-app purchase commissions that included fees of up to 30% to cut back on competition.

On Tuesday, CEO Tim Sweeney said Fortnite will return to iPhones along with its Epic Games Store “at a date to be determined.”

In a social media post, Sweeney called the ruling a “victory” in Australian antitrust proceedings via its nearly five-year-long legal battle against the tech giants.

Apple, the judge said, engaged in conduct that had the purpose or was “likely to have or had the effect of substantially lessening competition in such markets.” He added that Google’s conduct “had or is likely to have had the effect of substantially lessening competition in such markets.”

Beach pointed to Apple’s specific conduct that “prevents prohibits the direct downloading or sideloading of native apps and conduct that prevents or prohibits developers and users from using alternative payment methods.”

But he rejected the accusations by Epic that the two companies had otherwise violated consumer laws and exhibited “unconscionable conduct.”

Epic added that officials still need to sift through the nearly 2,000 pages of legal documents stemming from Tuesday’s ruling.

Both Google and Apple officials “welcomed” Beach’s rejection of certain parts of the ruling, but disagreed with the other aspects of Epic’s characterizations and court victory.

Google spokesperson Dan Jackson said it disagreed with the “court’s characterization of our billing policies and practices.”

He added it included “findings regarding some of our historical partnerships, which were all shaped in a fiercely competitive mobile landscape on behalf of users and developers,” he told The Verge.

“We will review the full decision when we receive it and assess our next steps,” Jackson said.

The legal battle began in 2020 when Apple and Google kicked Fortnite off its app stores for bypassing their payment systems with its own.

Legal action against Apple that year was followed by a 2021 lawsuit against Google Australia.

Epic has filed lawsuits against both Apple and Google around the world in courts in Britain over in Europe and the United States.

The California-based U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in July upheld a 2023 jury verdict against Google, saying it violated state and federal antitrust law by holding an illegal monopoly in Android app distribution and billing, and that Google unlawfully tied its billing system to Play Store.

On Tuesday, Apple officials stated the global tech giant faced “fierce competition in every market” where it operates.

“We continuously invest and innovate to make the App Store the safest place for users to get apps and a great business opportunity for developers in Australia and around the world,” Apple told ABC in Australia.

James Earl Jones’ voice of Darth Vader is one of the most recognizable sounds in movie history — and now it’s at the center of a fight over the use of artificial intelligence.

On Monday, Hollywood actors guild SAG-AFTRA filed an unfair labor charge over the use of an AI-powered version of the iconic “Star Wars” villain’s voice in the massively popular video game “Fortnite.”

Last week, “Fortnite” started allowing players to recruit Darth Vader to their teams and take turns talking to him using conversational AI technology that replicates Jones’ tone and speech patterns for the George Lucas-created character. “Fortnite” is owned by developer Epic Games.

SAG-AFTRA filed the complaint against Llama Productions, a subsidiary of Epic that works on “Fortnite.”

“Fortnite’s signatory company, Llama Productions, chose to replace the work of human performers with A.I. technology,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement. “Unfortunately, they did so without providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms.”

Epic Games did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jones had allowed Lucasfilm and Disney to use AI and archival recordings to replicate the actor’s voice as Darth Vader for future “Star Wars” projects. Jones died in September. “Fortnite” said it had received permission from Jones’ estate to include his voice in the game.

“James Earl felt that the voice of Darth Vader was inseparable from the story of Star Wars, and he always wanted fans of all ages to continue to experience it,” the family of James Earl Jones said in a statement on Fortnite’s post on its website last week. “We hope that this collaboration with Fortnite will allow both longtime fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to share in the enjoyment of this iconic character.”

SAG-AFTRA said in a statement that it celebrates the rights of its members and their estates to control digital replicas.

“However, we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members, including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader’s iconic rhythm and tone in video games,” the performers guild said.

AI remains a controversial topic in Hollywood, as actors and writers have raised concerns about the fast-growing technology harming their jobs. In 2023, actors and writers went on strike to fight for more protections in their contracts that addressed their concerns about artificial intelligence.

“Fortnite’s” use of Darth Vader’s voice wasn’t without other hiccups. Business Insider pointed to an example of where the voice was seen saying the F-word in the game and an Epic Games spokesman told Business Insider that a fix was made to stop Darth Vader from cursing within 30 minutes of it happening in-game.

Epic Games on Friday said that its popular game “Fortnite” will be offline on Apple devices because the iPhone maker blocked its recent app update.

The dispute comes just weeks after Epic Games and other app developers cheered a judge’s ruling that limited the commissions that Apple makes through third party apps distributed through its app store.

Apple received a scathing rebuke from U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who sided with Epic Games, which alleged that the Cupertino, Calif., tech giant ran afoul of an order she issued in 2021 after finding the company engaged in anticompetitive behavior.

Under the ruling, Apple can’t collect commissions on purchases U.S. customers make through links inside iPhone apps that direct them to outside websites. Developers, which make money by selling digital goods and services via their apps and games, want to avoid giving Apple a cut of their revenue by sending customers to other websites.

“That [Apple] thought this court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation,” the judge wrote in her ruling.

Many developers applauded the court’s ruling, which limits what they call the Apple tax, and said they would pass on the savings to customers.

Epic Games’ Chief Executive Tim Sweeney earlier this month said “Fornite” would return to the App Store in the U.S. and possibly worldwide if Apple extends “the court’s friction free, Apple tax-free framework” globally. But on Friday, the “Fortnite” X account said that Apple blocked its submission.

“Now, sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it,” the account posted. Epic Games did not return requests for further comment.

Apple said on Friday that it asked that “Epic Sweden resubmit the app update without including the U.S. storefront of the App Store so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies.”

“We did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces,” Apple said in a statement.

Rob Enderle, principal analyst with advisory services firm Enderle Group, said the recent ruling applies to the U.S. and Apple wants to retain the rest of its control worldwide. Apple makes significant money through apps.

“Apple is using their monopoly strength to prevent ‘Fortnite’ from benefiting globally from their core win,” Enderle said.

Epic Games filed its lawsuit against Apple in 2020. “Fornite” generates revenue by letting people buy digital goods, such as “skins,” in the game, and Epic wanted to let users buy items outside the Apple system to avoid the company’s commission.

The court ordered Apple to let app developers put links in its apps so customers could make outside purchases and bypass the company’s commission fee. Apple, however, defied the order, the court said.

Apple limited the ways that developers could communicate with its customers about out-of-app purchases and used wording that discouraged users from clicking on those links, the judge wrote. Apple would charge a commission fee for any goods or services purchased within seven days of a consumer clicking on a link that took them out of the app, the ruling said.

Apple is appealing the ruling and has said it strongly disagreed with the judge’s decision.