As we speak, Epic Games is embroiled in a tense court case against Google, having levelled accusations against the tech titan alleging that the firm tried ‘acting as a monopoly’, charging what is being reported as unreasonable commission on in-app purchases in the Google Play Store. In Google’s defence, it was stated that it was remaining competitive with Apple and not working in a monopolistic fashion, but Epic is standing firm – just as it did in 2021 against Apple.
Big Bucks
It has been revealed via the court case (and through The Verge) that in 2018, Google was willing to offer Epic Games a whopping $147 million over three years in incremental funding. It was a no-go from Epic Games, despite Google having had the proposal approved internally – all it needed was Epic’s signature on the dotted line. Instead, Epic remained independent, offering Fortnite to Android users through a proprietary installer.
In a backtrack movement, Epic Games did relent in 2020 and listed Fortnite on the Play Store – against all wishes, it was stated. It was said that Google had made it ‘exceedingly difficult’ to avoid the Play Store, but barely four months later, the game was once again pulled from the Play Store, just days after it was stripped from the Apple Store.
That was basically because Epic Games was, in a way, circumventing Google Play’s transaction fees by offering in-app purchases. It’s all dollars and cents discussions, of course.
Now, in the court case of Epic Games vs. Google, it was revealed that the latter firm offered up almost $150 million for Epic to just list Fortnite on the Play Store. In a statement obtained by The Verge, Google tried to leverage some persuasive money-talk to convince Epic Games to get on board:
Fortnite’s absence could result in $130M (up to $250M) direct revenue loss with Play” and that there could be a “downstream impact of $550M (up to $3.6B) potential revenue loss if broad contagion to other developers.
This course case is still ongoing.
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