Publishers Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Mac Game of the Week: Borderlands 2 gets exclusive content for the Mac

by Mike Schramm (Dec 20th, 2012)

Borderlands was sort of a surprise from Gearbox when it released a few years ago: It's an action RPG game, in the vein of popular titles like Diablo, but instead of the form that genre usually takes, an isometric fantasy RPG, Borderlands successfully placed loot grinding and RPG progression ...

Apple begins defense against possible ebook antitrust case

by Steven Sande (Mar 9th, 2012)

Apple is wasting no time beginning to defend itself against the possibility of a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust action alleging that the company conspired with publishers to fix ebook prices. Last week, Apple requested that a class action suit alleging price-fixing on ebooks be thrown ...

IDW releasing comics for iBooks

by Mike Schramm (Sep 7th, 2011)

Most of the comic books released on the iPad and iPhone have been inside of special apps (many of which are run by ComiXology, actually), but here's another option. Comic book publisher IDW is set to release some graphic novels and comic books through iBooks, meaning that you can buy them right ...

Apple, publishers reportedly close to completing cloud music deal

by Kelly Hodgkins (May 24th, 2011)

Apple's music streaming service is inching closer to launch according to industry sources. Earlier rumors suggest Apple already inked licensing agreements with three of the four major record labels, including EMI Music, Warner Music and Sony Music. The one remaining holdout is Universal Music, ...

Half of iPad subscribers willing to share information

by Mike Schramm (May 12th, 2011)

At first, publishers were wary of the terms of publishing for Apple's iPad that would require them to ask consumers whether or not they could use their information. In traditional magazine publishing, magazines would get access to their subscribers' information, and publishers worried that they ...

Google may introduce in-app purchasing to compete with Apple's model (Updated)

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 16th, 2011)

Google may debut its new in-app purchasing and subscription system to compete with Apple's controversial model. Similar to Apple, the Google system would let users purchase upgrades and other digital content within an application using Android's built-in payment system, Google Checkout. The new ...

Apple's subscription model is boon to consumers, bad for publishers

by Michael Grothaus (Feb 15th, 2011)

As we reported earlier, Apple announced the arrival of new subscription services for apps in the App Store today. According to the press release, subscriptions purchased from within the App Store will utilize the same billing system currently employed for app and in-app purchases. Publishers are ...

European newspaper publishers unhappy with Apple's publication requirements

by Mike Schramm (Feb 7th, 2011)

A few European publishers have heard from Apple about subscription arrangements on the App Store, and they're not happy at all. The agreement isn't that surprising -- just as with the current setup in iTunes for software developers, Apple is asking that all subscriptions go through them, and that ...

Periodicals on App Store must offer in-app subscriptions by March 31

by Chris Rawson (Feb 3rd, 2011)

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple will require any subscription-based periodical apps on the App Store to offer an in-app purchase option by March 31 or else face rejection. While that may sound like a fairly draconian demand on Apple's part, the Journal also notes (albeit way down in the ...

Japanese publishers censure Apple over App Store violations

by Kelly Hodgkins (Dec 14th, 2010)

A group of Japanese publishers are censuring Apple after copyrighted material was reportedly scanned and distributed through the iOS App Store. The group points to numerous App Store applications that are illegally re-publishing the works of well-known Japanese authors, including Haruki Murakami and ...

Rovio Mobile passing on Chillingo in the future

by Mike Schramm (Oct 21st, 2010)

Chillingo closed a huge deal with EA yesterday (becoming the second big iPhone publisher in as many weeks to be picked up), but the company's work with its biggest title apparently left a bad taste in the mouth of the developers, Rovio Mobile. That company tells TechCrunch that they'll never work ...

The curious idea of ads in iBooks

by Mike Schramm (Aug 24th, 2010)

Don't worry -- you won't start seeing ads for tattoo parlors while reading Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Not yet, anyway. But there's some interesting thinking going around the 'net (kicked off by this article in the Wall Street Journal) about how advertising may soon try to conquer the last bastion ...

Valve talks gaming on the Mac, says best is yet to come

by Mike Schramm (Aug 6th, 2010)

Valve's Jason Holtman and Doug Lombardi recently sat down with GamesIndustry.biz to discuss their big release of Steam on the Mac, and not only do they reiterate that great stat that games released on the Mac see a nice bump in sales, but they say that the best days of Mac gaming are yet to come. ...

Current game network developers comment on Apple's Game Center

by Mike Schramm (Apr 8th, 2010)

Way back in February at Macworld, one of my questions to Eros Remini of OpenFeint was pretty blunt: "Why," I asked a representative from the biggest third-party social gaming network on the iPhone, "haven't we seen an official platform-wide network?" Remini didn't have a good answer for Apple, but ...

More eBook trouble for Amazon

by Mike Schramm (Feb 5th, 2010)

Amazon has run into more trouble with its pricing -- after Macmillan and HarperCollins, a third company has pressured the online book retailer to raise prices on their Kindle eBooks. This time it's the Hachette Book Group, and their CEO in an internal memo says that the company will switch to an ...