In court, Google admitted that Epic was given a $147 million deal to publish its hit game Fortnite on Android’s Google Play Store. Purnima Kochikar, Google’s VP of Play partnerships, claims the contract was approved and presented to Epic but was not accepted.
Google tried to “pay off” Epic Games by offering it $147 million to put Fortnite on the Google Play Store for fear the game-maker could influence other developers to stay off and cause up to $3.6 billion in losses, an Epic lawyer said. https://t.co/ahecImjHHh pic.twitter.com/iPyJrmyNpX
— Law360 (@Law360) November 9, 2023
The money would have been distributed to the game publisher over three years of “incremental funding” (ending in 2021). It was intended to prevent a “contagion” of popular apps from bypassing Android’s official store and, with them, Google’s lucrative in-app purchase fees.
Epic published Fortnite on Android straight through their website in 2018, bypassing the Play Store. This allowed them to sell V-Bucks, Fortnite’s in-game currency, without having to pay the fee needed for Play Store apps.
It backed down in 2020, citing “scary, repetitive security pop-ups” and other issues as putting it at a significant disadvantage.
However, in an antitrust action brought later that year — and currently being discussed before a jury — it claimed that its earlier judgment had panicked Google.
It quoted internal Google documents suggesting Google was concerned about a “contagion risk” if other game developers (including Blizzard, Valve, Sony, and Nintendo) followed Epic’s lead, and it claimed Google tried to prevent this by offering special privileges or even buying Epic.
Lawrence Koh, the now-former head of Google Play’s games business development, testified in court on Tuesday about the “contagion” materials. They predicted Google’s fears that almost all prominent game companies would abandon Play within a few of years following Epic’s decision, costing Google billions of dollars in revenue.
You might also be interested in the following gaming news:
- Xbox Series X Black Friday Amazon: How To Score The Best Deals On The Next-Gen Console?
- Do You Need Xbox Live To Play Fortnite? The Truth About The Online Subscription
Fortnite’s absence might result in a direct income loss of between $130 and $250 million, as well as a broader downstream loss of up to $3.6 billion if the enormous defection occurred.
Google argues that it was concerned about losing games on Play but that this is not illegal. “We just wanted developers to choose Play,” Kochikar testified. And getting rounds on the service, according to Koh, “was the investment we thought was worth all the dollars” — especially since those developers might have chosen to launch first on Apple’s iOS.
Epic, on the other hand, is using these records to prove that Google was afraid of competition for Android app distribution and, hence, kept its Play Store as an illegal monopoly. The existence of this transaction does not prove that, but it provides a fascinating look at how Google views its gaming company.
We appreciate your interest in our website! Make Gameempress.com your go-to site for gaming information.