Epic Games had filed a lawsuit against Google in August 2020 for violating antitrust rules, shortly after Fortnite was removed from the Google Play Store. The lawsuit claimed that Google imposed numerous restrictions on payments to the Google Play Store. It looked like a monopoly. Epic's complaint was renewed in July 2021. It filed an update and another update on Google's anti-competitive behavior with respect to the Play Store. But a media report revealed that Google is considering buying "some or all of its developer Epic Games".
According to new unsealed court documents reported by The Verge, Google has offered a special deal to get Fortnite back from the Play Store. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney took to Twitter and shared his word with the following statement:
"unbeknownst to us at the time, and because of the court's protective order we're just finding out now about Google's consideration of buying Epic to shut down our efforts to compete with Google Play".
Tim added:
"Whether this would have been a negotiation to buy Epic or some sort of hostile takeover attempt is unclear. Here Google also talks about the 'frankly abysmal' sideloading experience they created, all while touting Android publicly as an 'open platform."
Epic claimed that Google is under threat from Epic's plans to circumvent Google Play Store commissions by distributing Fortnite through other platforms or services.
"Google has gone so far as to split its monopoly profits with business partners to get their agreement and compete with developers of competitive alternatives and has even considered buying part or all of Epic to quell this threat," said Epic in an unredacted segment, as reported by Business Standard.
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The Fortnite developer, which filed a new antitrust lawsuit against Google last month, has renewed its fight against restrictions on app stores. Google was sued last year by the developer of Fortnite over its removal from the Play Store.
Few reports said, “When Epic rejected the deal, Google allegedly took further anti-competitive action, but details of that action are not available. »
Fortnite was also removed from the App Store in August 2020, which led to disputes between the two parties. Fortnite was removed from the AppStore's App Store in August 2020. The company allegedly violated App Store rules by adding an in-game payment system that would deprive Apple of its commission on in-app purchases.
Epic is also embroiled in a legal battle against Apple. Apple's main Apple-Epic trial ended in May. Both parties are now awaiting a decision from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on the matter. According to a report from IGN India, Epic Games does not expect to make a profit on the Epic Games Store until 2027. It seems that the store will lose money until 2027 due to the provision of free games.
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