Last year, Epic Games' top-selling game Fortnite was pulled from Apple and Google's App Store after the developers released a new payment system that bypassed the payment systems and purchase fees of major companies.
Shortly afterwards, Epic filed antitrust lawsuits against Apple and Google. The leaked court documents reveal that, before the antitrust lawsuits were filed, Google attempted to acquire Epic Games.
The court document, first reported by The Verge , is Epic Games' lawsuit against Google in the United States. Epic Games also has a similar lawsuit against Google in Australia.
In the document [ PDF ], Epic claims that Google was threatened by its plans to bypass its official Google Play Store supply by distributing Fortnite through other channels. To address these concerns, Google reportedly considered buying “part or all of Epic Games” to get developers out of the way.
Google has gone so far as to share its monopoly profits with business partners to secure their agreement to restrict competition, and has developed a series of in-house "contamination" projects perceived by Epic and others' efforts to offer to consumers and developers competing alternatives. "He even considered buying part or all of Epic to combat this threat," Epic said in a court statement.
Google has also reportedly used conventional and technical barriers to make it difficult for users to download Epic Games applications to their devices. It used the exclusion of OEMs, such as OnePlus, from entering into agreements with Epic Games, effectively cutting off users' access to install and update Epic Games applications without using the Google Play Store.
In addition, Epic Games claims that it was offered a "special deal" by Google to release Fortnite in the Play Store as another measure to stop the company's sideloading efforts. When they made the offer, Google Play executives reportedly admitted that sideloading would be an "awful experience" and warned of the "15+ steps" users would have to take to install the Epic Games app if the company did not accept the agreement.
Epic Games rejected Google's special deal, choosing to distribute Fortnite for Android through Epic's website and through a partnership with Samsung.
In addition to litigation with Epic Games, Google "won" another antitrust lawsuit last month by U.S. Attorneys General in 36 states and Washington. As with Epic Games lawsuits, prosecutors say Android is far less open than Google claims, as it restricts third-party app stores and discourages immediate downloads.
George is still wondering what he is doing here….
