According to the court filing of Epic Games Inc., Google paid Activision Blizzard Inc. and Riot Games to not launch their own competing app stores and prevented developers from making applications for Android outside the Google Play Store. The Fortnite maker has been in a heated argument since 2020 over anti-competitive practices for their app store.
Prevented Launching Competing App Stores
Google allegedly paid Activision Blizzard Inc. and Riot Games for preventing them to release their own app stores, Epic Game Inc. confirmed via their court filing. Reuters reported that as a part of the agreement, a total of $360 million was paid to Activision in January 2020, despite having plans to launch its own app store. While for Riot Games, $30 million was paid by Google to Tencent Holdings Ltd.
Epic Games stated in their complaint that "Google understood that its agreement with ABK effectively ensured that ABK would abandon its plans to launch a competing app store, and Google intended this result," according to the complaint. The Fortnite Maker added on the court papers that game makers Nintendo Co.' and 'Ubisoft Entertainment', meditation app 'Calm', and education app 'Age of Learning, also signed an agreement with Google.
Response of Other Parties
While Epic Games is very confident with its allegations, Google denies the accusation and stated these deals are not restricting gaming companies from launching their own app stores. A Google Spokesperson stated that Epic has been misinterpreting business conversations. 'Project Hug', which is the program associated with the mentioned deals by Epic Games, is for developers to provide incentives and early access to Google Play consumers for new application content, Google added.
Meanwhile, Activision Blizzard stated that the claims of Epic Games are nonsense. Based on a report by Bloomberg, the company stated that they were never asked by Google to not compete with their app store and there were no such agreements. "We've submitted documents and testimony that proves this," they added. Riot is also now reviewing the filing but did not give any statements regarding the claims.
These accusations from Epic Games are part of their expansion of the lawsuit, along with Match Group. But before releasing statements, Engadget reported that Google already opposed the motion and stated last week that these claims are false. This program is evidence that Google Play has been fairly competing with its rivals for developers, the company stated. Adding to this, the program is free and developers can also choose to take advantage of it or not, which is indicated to the program's terms and conditions.
Microsoft Corporation is currently in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard. The filing revealed in October that the company is planning to build its own game store that operates to several and huge ranges of devices, which includes mobile phones.
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Written by Inno Flores
