A recently unredacted copy of a lawsuit first filed by Epic Games against Google in 2020 alleges that Activision Blizzard received $360 million over the course of three years in exchange for not building a rival app store to compete with Google's Play Store.
As reported by Reuters, the lawsuit accuses Google of being anti-competitive when it comes to its mobile game marketplace, and names numerous other video game-related-companies like Nintendo, Riot Games, and Ubisoft in a list of companies that allegedly received money from Google in an effort by the company to deter competition.
In a tweet, Activision Blizzard's executive vice president of corporate affairs, Lulu Chen Meservey, stated that Epic's claims are "false" and that "Google never asked us, pressured us, or made us agree to not compete with them." Meservey states that submitted documents and testimony disprove Epic's claim.
Epic is accusing Activision Blizzard’s partner Google of paying us not to compete with them.
— Lulu Cheng Meservey (@lulumeservey) November 17, 2022
To be clear: that's false.
Google never asked us, pressured us, or made us agree not to compete with them - and we’ve already submitted documents and testimony disproving this nonsense.
According to Reuters, Google says Epic's claims are full of mischaracterizations. The payments to the 24 companies listed in the lawsuit are to "keep developers satisfied" and in fact reflect healthy competition rather than discourage it, Google says.
The lawsuit additionally claims that Google considered buying Epic Games by teaming up with Tencent (which owns a 40% stake in Epic) to gain control over the company. Epic claims Google was threatened by its decision to distribute its mega-hit Fortnite outside of the Play Store, circumventing Google's platform-holder fees.
Google estimated in 2019 it could lose billions of dollars if the idea of alternative digital storefronts on Google devices spreads. The company approved the use of hundreds of millions of dollars as part of what it called "Project Hug" to encourage top developers to keep their games on the Play Store.
Activision Blizzard is notably the owner of one of the most lucrative mobile game IPs in the world, Candy Crush. The franchise has been the top-grossing game franchise on US app stores for 21 quarters in a row, according to Activision Blizzard's most recent quarterly financial results. Microsoft, which is in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard pending regulatory approval, has repeatedly cited Candy Crush and its developer King as one of the key reasons behind Microsoft's acquisition.
Epic Games recently brought a similar lawsuit against Apple and its App Store, with a judge ruling against the Fortnite developer in nine out of 10 counts and, forcing it to pay $12 million for breach of contract. Epic is appealing the decisions.