New details have emerged in the ongoing antitrust trial between Epic Games and Google regarding a lucrative deal that Google proposed to convince Epic to release its hit game Fortnite on the Android Play Store in 2018.
Google’s generous offer rejected by Epic
According to testimony from Google Vice President Purnima Kochikar, Google offered Epic Games an incentive package of $147 million over three years to launch Fortnite on Play. This deal was aimed at stopping a feared “contagion” of developers avoiding Play and its lucrative fees. However, Epic rejected Google’s offer and initially released Fortnite independently, avoiding Play commissions.
Google fears losing billions in revenue
Internal documents revealed that Google feared a massive loss of revenue if other major developers like Blizzard and Nintendo followed Epic’s lead. Google estimated it will lose between $130 million and $250 million directly from the absence of Fortnite and up to $3.6 billion from broader downstream effects. Google maintains that it simply wanted to keep games on Play, not maintain an illegal monopoly.
Epic alleges Google’s monopoly tactics
Instead, Epic is using the rejected deal and internal documents to argue that Google uses monopolistic tactics to maintain Play’s dominance in Android app distribution. While not definitive proof, the deal provides insight into how Google values its gaming business. The trial continues as Epic seeks to prove Google’s antitrust violations.
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Categories: Technology
Source: vtt.edu.vn