Google has reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars on deals with top developers in an attempt to prevent them from launching their own app stores on Android. The revelation comes from a new, unredacted copy of Epic’s 2020 lawsuit against Google, reviewed by Reuters. According to the site, the documents showed that Google paid Activision Blizzard $360 million over three years in such a deal, while another $30 million was paid to Riot Games over one year. In total, 24 deals were highlighted between Google and big-name developers, including Ubisoft, Nintendo and non-gaming app providers. The deals were part of “Project Hug” — which has been mentioned but never described in previous versions of the lawsuit — and included payments for posting videos on YouTube as well as credits for Google offerings such as advertising and cloud services. According to Reuters, Google said the deals were to keep developers happy and reflect healthy competition. However, the suit alleged that the agreements were to block competing app stores. For example, Activision’s deal is said to have been made in January 2020, shortly after it told Google it was considering launching its own marketplace on Android. Likewise, Riot’s partnership was reportedly designed to “stop their efforts on their internal ‘app store’.” Riot Games told Reuters it was currently reviewing the new filing, while Activision had no comment. Epic’s lawsuit against Google was originally filed after the latter removed Fortnite from the Play Store – an action taken after Epic Games circumvented rules around payments and allowed players to buy virtual currency directly from the developer, avoiding the 30% off Google. Google sued and the two are set to face each other in court in various jurisdictions, including the US, UK and Australia. Much of the focus, however, has been on Epic’s almost identical dispute with Apple. The Fortnite company lost all but one of its arguments against Apple after a trial in California in May 2021. Both parties are currently before the appeals court as each tries to modify the judge’s decision.
