Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney on Monday described Google as a ruthless bully that resorts to shady tactics to protect a predatory payments system.
His interpretation came in testimony in an antitrust trial focused on Epic Games’ attempt to disrupt Google’s store for Android phone apps.
Sweeney’s more than two-hour stay on the witness stand in San Francisco came less than a week after Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended to a 10-member jury the way his company manages your Play Store for Android apps.
It is one of two antitrust cases against Google, whose $1.7 trillion tech empire is threatened by legal attacks seeking to break it up.
Testimony in the Android phone app case is scheduled to conclude before Christmas.
Tim Sweeney’s testimony revolves around the antitrust trial centered on Epic Games’ attempt to disrupt Google’s store for Android phone apps.Getty Images
The other case, centered on Google’s main search engine, ended last week, but will not be decided by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., until next year.
While Sweeney sought to paint Google as a greedy monopolist being grilled by his own lawyer, Google lawyer Jonathan Kravis was trying to flip the script.
Much of Kravis’s questioning seemed designed to portray Sweeney as an executive primarily interested in circumventing a long-standing commission system to boost his video game company’s profits.
Epic alleges that Google engaged in illegal price gouging by charging fees ranging from 15% to 30% on digital transactions within the app. AP
Epic, the creator of the popular game Fortnite, alleges that Google has been involved in illegal price gouging by charging commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on digital transactions within the app.
It’s similar to a payment system that Epic unsuccessfully challenged in a parallel lawsuit filed against Apple’s iPhone App Store.
Epic is appealing the outcome of Apple’s trial to the US Supreme Court.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended the way his company manages its Play Store for Android apps to the 10-member jury. AFP via Getty Images
Unlike Apple’s iPhone app store, Google already allows competition with the Play Store, something Epic tried to do when it decided to roll out Fortnite for Android phones in 2018 on its own website instead of the Play Store.
In his testimony on Monday, Sweeney recalled how Google called him at its Mountain View, California, headquarters to try to persuade Epic to release Fortnite on the Play Store.
Sweeney said Google tried to lure him with a wide range of financial incentives, which he rejected.
Epic attempted to allow competition on the Play Store when it decided to roll out Fortnite for Android phones in 2018 on its own website. Shutterstock
“It seemed like a crooked deal,” Sweeney told jurors. “Google was proposing a series of side deals, which seemed designed to convince Epic not to compete against them.”
Sweeney’s appearance came after Epic lawyers had previously shown Google documents showing that Google had offered video game maker Activision Blizzard a package valued at $360 million to abandon a tentative plan to compete against the Play Store.
Google lawyers filed other documents outlining that the deal would bring more than $315 million in benefits to Activision.
After rejecting Google’s proposals, Epic attempted to distribute Fortnite for Android through its own website.
But Sweeney testified that the effort quickly became “a depressing process” because far fewer players downloaded Fortnite for Android phones than anticipated.
He attributed the disappointing response to Google’s machinations that made it a cumbersome process outside the Play Store and the use of pop-up “scare screens” that warned of potential problems with the software.
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“We realized that Google was a difficult adversary and had the ability to hinder us,” Sweeney said.
Epic finally released Fortnite on the Play Store in 2020 while it was hatching a secret plan to eventually bypass the commission system by covertly introducing an alternative payment option as part of what Sweeney dubbed “Project Freedom.”
The alternative payment option was launched in August 2020 in the revised Fortnite apps for both the Play Store and the iPhone App Store, prompting Apple and Google to block it within a few hours.
Epic then filed antitrust lawsuits as part of what Sweeney framed as a crusade on behalf of all game creators as more games are played on smartphones rather than consoles and PCs.
“It’s a problem that I consider existential for all games, including Epic,” Sweeney said.
During his cross-examination of Sweeney, Google lawyer Kravis uncomplainingly laid out the 30% commissions Epic pays Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo for transactions on PlayStation, Xbox and Switch consoles, while still raking in billions of dollars in profits from those platforms.
In response to a question presented by a jury, Sweeney revealed that video game consoles and personal computers generated more than 90% of Epic’s revenue from in-app purchases during the 2020 period, when Fortnite was also in the store. of iPhone applications and Play Store. .
Sweeney didn’t say why Epic hasn’t challenged the 30% commission charge on gaming devices other than smartphones, but he left no doubt about its goal in this test.
“We want the jury to find that Google violated the law so the court can force Google to stop these practices,” Sweeney said.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn