Summary
Google offered Epic Games $147 million to bringFortniteto the Play Store. The existence of that eye-watering proposal is just the latest revelation stemming fromEpic’s antitrust lawsuit against Googlethat is currently undergoing trial.
Following years of preparations, Epic and Google started facing off in court on November 6. The litigation stems from Epic’s August 2020 decision to update the Android version ofFortnitewith in-app purchases (IAPs) that circumvented the Play Store and consequently Google’s then-flat 30% revenue cut. This prompted the Internet giant to ban the hit battle royale game from its storefront. Shortly thereafter,Epic sued Google over theFortnitePlay Store removal, alleging antitrust violations.
The case has now reached its jury trial phase more than three years later, with the third day of the hearing at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California including a testimony from Google Play Apps and Games VP Purnima Kochikar. While speaking on the stand, Kochikar revealed that Google offered Epic $147 million just to bringFortniteto the Play Store,The Verge reports. The proposal was put forward around the time Epic launched the Android version of the battle royale hit through its website in 2018. Google was prepared to pay out this eye-watering amount of money in increments spanning a three-year period ending in 2021, Kochikar explained.
Despite Refusing Google’s Offer, Epic Released Fortnite on the Play Store Two Years Later
Although Epic refused the offer at the time, it reverted its Android distribution strategy just two years later, having eventuallyreleasedFortniteon the Google Play Storein April 2020. Back then, the developer insinuated that Google strong-armed it into bringing the game to its platform by complaining about the incessant security warnings that users would receive when trying to installFortniteby downloading its APK file straight from the company’s website. It took only four months for Epic to decide to circumvent Google’s payment framework, thus forcing the game’s Play Store ban and obtaining the grounds to sue the tech giant.
Offering to pay forFortnite’s Play Store debut may not have been the only way Google attempted to resolve Epic’s opposition to its mobile developer fees. According to a previously unredacted version of the antitrust lawsuit,Google considered outright buying Epic Gamesbecause it perceived its resistance to the Play Store as a large threat to the Android storefront and its business model.
TheFortnitemaker previously filed a similar lawsuit against Apple, which it lost on nine out of ten counts following an appeal verdict in April 2023. The sole provision that it managed to win yielded an injunction against Apple that stopped it from preventing app developers from collecting customer info and redirecting users to external websites to complete app purchases. Apple asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review that concession in September 2023.
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