Roblox Soars 43% on First Day of Trading as Gaming Booms - The games industry had a bumper year last year, with the launch of two new consoles and people locked indoors for a good chunk of the year - A record $56.9 billion was spent on gaming last year in the United States, up 27 percent from 2019, according to the NPD Group - That all set the stage for Roblox first day of trading, which saw its shares jump by 43%  - Roblox is fascinating story - it was started 16 years ago and launched 14 years ago, so it is hardly an overnight success, but it’s still niche enough that many people wouldn’t have heard of the company  - The game is sort of like a online version of Minecraft - while minecraft can be played online, you do need to build your own server, so that’s a barrier for most people  - Roblox allows users to create their own minigames that others can play. Many of the games have been built by kids who grew up with the game, and know it back to front  - One developer, Anne Shoemaker, 21, said she had earned more than $500,000 from the platform, most of it since the pandemic began. She has used some of the money to hire two employees and a dozen contractors, she said. Epic expands app store fight even further with new legal claim against Google in Australia - Epic Games is continuing its worldwide fight against Google & Apple’s app stores.  - The gaming company has started legal proceedings in Australia against Google, alleging Google is breaching Australian consumer law by abusing its control over the Android operating system. - The legal claim follows a similar action against Apple in Australia filed last November, and Epic’s legal fight against app stores now spans the European Union, the UK, and the US - At the heart of the matter...Epic says it’s unfair Google and Apple take 30% cut of app revenue and app makers need alternative app stores or alternative in-app payment systems. Facebook Seeks to Dismiss Antitrust Suits, Saying It Hasn’t Harmed Consumers  - Meanwhile, Facebook wants the antitrust cases against it to be dismissed.  - FB filed two motions this week asking courts to dismiss the lawsuits filed by the FTC and a coalition of state attorneys general last year.  - It’s the first move from Facebook’s lawyers in what will be a long legal back-and-forth.  Fire breaks out in OVH building in Lille, France  - Millions of European websites were taken down after a fire destroyed parts of a major data centre.  - The data centre was located in Strasbourg, in eastern France, and is operated by OVHCloud, a french alternative to AWS and Microsoft Azure.  - Why is a fire in your data centre bad?  Tech’s War With News Outlets Flares as U.S. Lawmakers Ready Bill - Bloomberg reports “The battle between news publishers and Alphabet’s Google and Facebook that flared up in Australia recently is coming to the U.S.” - Media organisations argue that to gain negotiating leverage and level the playing field, they must be able to collectively bargain with the platforms, something that’s prohibited under U.S. antitrust laws. - The proposed legislation would grant them a safe harbor from that restriction, but it doesn’t include a proposal for forced arbitration between the tech companies and the publishers - Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who is leading the initiative in the Senate, said the legislation is necessary to help publishers better negotiate by giving them tools to counteract the power of Google and Facebook. - “The reason that we’re brought to this moment is that they have an unfettered monopoly,” Klobuchar said in an interview. Google and Facebook “thought they had so much power they could literally exit a major country,” she added.   See acast.com/privacy for priv...