Google paid Activision Blizzard roughly $360 million to stop the from competing straight in opposition to the Play Store. The deal was one amongst no less than 24 agreements the search large signed as a part of its Project Hug initiative, based on court docket paperwork seen by .
The monetary particulars of Project Hug – later referred to as the Apps and Games Velocity Program – are on the heart of the . In 2021, the studio alleged Google had to maintain huge app builders on the Play Store. This week, a newly unredacted model of Epic’s criticism was made public, offering beforehand unknown particulars concerning the scope of the Apps and Games Velocity Program.
According to the court docket paperwork, Google additionally signed offers with Nintendo, Ubisoft and Riot Games. In the case of Riot, Google paid about $30 million to “stop” the League of Legends studio from pushing ahead with its personal “in-house ‘app store’ efforts,” Epic alleges. Riot Games didn’t instantly reply to Engadget’s request for remark.
The lawsuit alleges Google knew signing with Activision would immediate the writer to “abandon its plans to launch a competing app store,” a claim Activision disputes. “Google never asked us, pressured us, or made us agree not to compete with Google Play,” an Activision spokesperson instructed Reuters. “Epic’s allegations are nonsense.”
Google didn’t instantly reply to Engadget’s request for remark. The firm beforehand mentioned it was “looking forward to setting the record straight” on Epic’s “inaccurate” claims.
“The program on which Epic and Match base their claims simply provides incentives for developers to give benefits and early access to Google Play users when they release new or updated content; it does not prevent developers from creating competing app stores, as they allege,” Google instructed Engadget in October after Epic and Match filed a movement to carry . “In fact, the program is proof that Google Play competes fairly with numerous rivals for developers, who have a number of choices for operating systems and app stores.”
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