52 companies agreed to participate, including game maker Square Enix, with more expected to get on board. Yahoo could bring together data from its more than 60 million monthly active users – such as search history, ads and payment information – to help game publishers sell merchandise and create new titles. It envisioned expanding the platform into other areas such as business software.
But Yahoo abruptly slashed its budget for Game Plus at end-2017 and has now stopped promoting the service. Square Enix in April pulled "Antique Carnevale", a new title developed specifically for Game Plus, off the platform.
Yahoo told multiple business partners that it was forced to cut back because of pressure behind the scenes from Apple. The Japanese company relies on the U.S. tech giant for part of its profits in the form of sales through the App Store.
The FTC has been collecting info on the situation, which it believes may interfere in Yahoo's business. SoftBank Group has stepped in to mediate, a source with knowledge of the situation said. SoftBank, Yahoo's largest shareholder, collects payments made by its mobile phone subscribers to the App Store for Apple and keeps a portion of the revenue for itself. This intermediary role leaves SoftBank's position with regard to the situation unclear.
Apple and Yahoo did not respond to requests for comment, while SoftBank responded with "no comment".
