Isn't Microsoft headquartered in Redmond (Washington) while Google has always listed their headquarters as Mountain View (CA)? Although to be fair, MS has monopoly status for the Xbox, while Sony has a monopoly for the Play Station, Nintendo for the Switch, and definitely Apple for iOS devices. But good catch by Chuck with TenCent owning 40% of Epic. Any win for Epic just lines TenCent's coffers.

As much as I want to believe them, like how they're supposedly fighting for consumer friendliness, I am afraid I am being a bit naive here. 

With them being nearly half owned by Tencent, which is doing everything in their power to expand to the worldwide market, I don't think it's all so black and white.  They're just opening the gates for another monopoly to enter the chat. 

Ok, I've been watching these as they could have FAR REACHING implications for the rest of the industry.

On the one hand, Google was simply attempting to do what Apple has gotten away with from DAY ONE - Single Source of ANY apps or upgrades to existing apps.

However on the other hand, Apple at least 'filters', 'tests' or 'curates' apps in their store while the 'Play Store' is RIDDLED with spyware infected apps that request/demand countless unneeded access rights to your device+data on it and account.

So at the end of the day does it matter where users get their apps from if there is NO 'GATE KEEPING' involved checking for app quality and the privacy rights of the users?

Much like the lawsuits against Apple, the AppStore/PlayStore's take a HUGE BITE out of the "micro-transactions" that are baked into most games these days.


g.