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Google Fixes Issue That Broke Millions of Web-Based Games in Chrome (bleepingcomputer.com)

Posted by msmash on from the a-breather dept.

Google this week rolled out an update to Chrome to patch a bug that had rendered millions of web-based games useless. From a report: The bug was introduced in mid-April when Google launched Chrome 66. One of this release's features was its ability to block web pages with auto-playing audio. [...] Not all games were affected the same. For some HTML5 games, users could re-enable audio by interacting with the game's canvas via a click-to-play interaction. Unfortunately, older games and those that weren't coded with such policy remained irrevocably broken, no matter what Chrome options users tried to modify in their settings sections. [...] With today's release of Chrome for Desktop v66.0.3359.181, Google has now fixed this issue, but only temporarily. John Pallett, a product manager at Google, admitted that Google "didn't do a good job of communicating the impact of the new autoplay policy to developers using the Web Audio API." He said, for this reason, the current version of Chrome, v66, will no longer automatically mute Web Audio objects.

7 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Really? by llamalad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are *millions* of web-based games? Millions?

    1. Re:Really? by Luthair · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Clickbait hyperbole, but then what would one expect from a site which no doubt purely by coincidence only ever has its articles submitted anonymously?

  2. Re:This will lead to videos pretending to be games by Junta · · Score: 2

    Note that a lot of the developer community has made a pretty reasonable ask, for the browser to prompt the user and make it transparent to the web developer by default. Still auto-mute, but have a default UI in the browser to ask user to unmute the tab.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  3. A Living Standard by Neuroelectronic · · Score: 2

    So google and other big IT players petition to get their special HTML5 garbage into every browser, modify the standard so only they can use it effectively, then break it when it threatens their advertising revenue.

    This is the web standard we have now. Infected Open Sores!

  4. That's nuthin by bagofbeans · · Score: 2

    It also "rendered millions of web-based games useless" because Chrome's the only browser.

    There's a pun available in the word "rendered" too, but can't be bothered.

  5. Re:Smart Policy Options by darkain · · Score: 2

    "[website] WANTS TO KNOW YOUR LOCATION. "

    This is already one of the absolute most annoying parts of the entire internet.

    Now we'll just have more of the same "request" dialogs for every little thing a web site wants to do.

    This is Windows Vista all over again!

  6. Re:mute vs block by green1 · · Score: 2

    I wish they would stop muting things and actually block them. I think it's ridiculous that I have to waste my very limited LTE data plan downloading videos that I have no intention of watching.

    Of course this wouldn't be a problem if Chrome would allow extensions on mobile because then I could use something like ublock and not have to see all these ridiculous videos. It seems these days as if 3/4 of the sites I go to have auto-playing video, it's great that I don't have to hear it anymore, but I want my bandwidth back!