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Last Updated: November 09, 2023, 14:15 IST
Google wanted to pay millions to void losing billions, makes sense?
Google charges developers a commission to publish apps on the Play Store and that has created issues in the industry.
Google has been sharing a lot of interesting details over the past few weeks as the company tackles multiple lawsuits over its business practice. It was reported that Google was ready to pay billions to Apple so that Google remains the default search engine on iPhone, iPads and more. Similarly, Google and Epic Games had discussions around the prospect of getting Fortnite on the Play Store for which Google was willing to pay over $140 million to the developer.
The premise of the case involving these two companies is related to the Play Store commissions that both Apple and Google charge from developers. Epic Games has Fortnite as one of the hottest mobile products which helps them earn plenty through in-app purchases. Resisting the temptation from Google, the report says Epic Games didn’t accept the offer of putting Fortnite on Play Store.
But why was Google willing to pay such a big amount for the game? Firstly, the company was concerned about other developers going through this route which would have affected its earnings through the app store. And yes, having Fortnite on the Play Store for Google was a bigger deal than paying them 100s of millions.
So, Fortnite didn’t come to the Play Store, the developer set up their own website from where people could download the game on their phones, which is possibly only on Android. Doing this meant Epic Games was easily bypassing the need to pay Google for the game being listed on the Play Store.
The details revealed through documents in the court this week claim Google estimated a revenue loss of around $250 million when Fortnite decided against launching through the Play Store.
And if other developers had followed suit, the losses would have been over $3 billion. To prevent these numbers becoming a reality, Google decided to pay a hefty sum to Epic Games, and in fact, considered buying Epic at one point. Google claims it wanted all the major developers to publish on Play Store, while Epic Games has countered this statement by highlighting the monopolistic concerns Google has raised with these actions.
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