Google supplied Epic $147 million to launch Fortnite on the Play retailer

Google has confirmed in court docket that Epic was supplied a $147 million deal to launch its hit sport Fortnite on Android’s Google Play retailer. The deal, which Google’s VP of Play partnerships Purnima Kochikar says was authorized and introduced to Epic however not accepted, would have seen the cash distributed over a three-year interval of “incremental funding” (ending in 2021) to the video games writer. It was meant to stem a possible “contagion” of common apps bypassing Android’s official retailer, and with it, Google’s profitable in-app buy charges.

Epic launched Fortnite on Android in 2018 straight by way of its web site, avoiding the Play retailer. That allowed it to promote Fortnite’s in-game forex V-Bucks with out paying the fee required of Play Retailer apps. It relented in 2020, saying that “scary, repetitive safety pop-ups” and different elements had put it at a extreme drawback.

However in an antitrust lawsuit filed later that 12 months — and presently being argued earlier than a jury — it alleged its preliminary determination had thrown Google right into a panic. It cited inner paperwork claiming Google feared a “contagion threat” if different sport builders (together with Blizzard, Valve, Sony, and Nintendo) adopted Epic’s lead, and it claimed Google tried to forestall it by providing particular advantages and even shopping for Epic.

The “contagion” paperwork got here up in court docket on Tuesday when Lawrence Koh, the now-former head of Google Play’s video games enterprise growth, took the stand. They forecasted Google’s issues that nearly all prime sport builders might defect from Play inside a few years of Epic’s determination, costing Google a complete of billions of {dollars} in income. Paperwork proven in court docket projected Fortnite’s absence might end in a direct income loss between $130 and $250 million after which a broader downstream lack of as much as $3.6 billion if that huge defection befell.

Google’s place is that it was involved about dropping video games on Play, however that there’s nothing nefarious about that. “We simply wished builders to decide on Play,” Kochikar mentioned in testimony. And getting video games on the service, Koh testified, “was the funding we thought was value all of the {dollars}.” Notably when these builders might need chosen to launch on Apple’s iOS first.

Conversely, Epic is utilizing these paperwork to argue that Google feared competitors for Android app distribution and has maintained its Play retailer as an illegal monopoly. This deal’s existence doesn’t show that — however on the very least, it’s an attention-grabbing take a look at how Google sees its video games enterprise.

Sean Hollister contributed reporting.