Commissar SFLUFAN Posted August 6, 2021 Share Posted August 6, 2021 Google considered buying "some or all" of Epic during Fortnite clash, court documents say WWW.THEVERGE.COM Epic linked its case to a state antitrust suit against Google. Quote Google considered buying Epic Games as the companies sparred over Epic’s Fortnite Android app, according to newly unsealed court filings. Last night, Google lifted some of its redactions in Epic’s antitrust complaint against Google, which Epic amended and refiled last month. The complaint still omits many details about Google’s dealings with specific companies, but the new details reflect internal Google communications about competition on the Android platform. Epic claims Google was threatened by its plans to sidestep Google’s official Play Store commission by distributing Fortnite through other channels, and in an unredacted segment, it quotes an internal Google document calling Epic’s plans a “contagion” threatening Google. Here’s Epic’s description of the situation: "Google has gone so far as to share its monopoly profits with business partners to secure their agreement to fence out competition, has developed a series of internal projects to address the “contagion” it perceived from efforts by Epic and others to offer consumers and developers competitive alternatives, and has even contemplated buying some or all of Epic to squelch this threat." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwinIon Posted August 6, 2021 Share Posted August 6, 2021 It's certainly no coincidence that Android 12 is going to let 3rd party app stores work much better. I think that Google has been a bit too confident that the mere ability to bypass the Google Play Store will insulate them from these antitrust complaints. I have to say that I'm surprised at the lengths that Google has gone to protect their App store dominance. I understand why Apple considers it such an existential threat, but didn't think that Google was nearly as concerned about this as they apparently have been. I'm certainly glad that Google did not buy Epic. I understand why people may not like Epic, but I think they're good for the ecosystem, and Google being in control of them to any degree would hamstring Epic's ability to be disruptive in any given market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stepee Posted August 6, 2021 Share Posted August 6, 2021 2 hours ago, TwinIon said: It's certainly no coincidence that Android 12 is going to let 3rd party app stores work much better. I think that Google has been a bit too confident that the mere ability to bypass the Google Play Store will insulate them from these antitrust complaints. I have to say that I'm surprised at the lengths that Google has gone to protect their App store dominance. I understand why Apple considers it such an existential threat, but didn't think that Google was nearly as concerned about this as they apparently have been. I'm certainly glad that Google did not buy Epic. I understand why people may not like Epic, but I think they're good for the ecosystem, and Google being in control of them to any degree would hamstring Epic's ability to be disruptive in any given market. Ya, Google owning Unreal Engine would be fucking horrible lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted August 20, 2021 Author Share Posted August 20, 2021 Google once considered teaming up with Tencent to take over Epic Games | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM Google evidently doesn't fool around when it comes to protecting Google Play Store profits. Quote When Epic publicly rejected Apple and Google's app store terms and hit the "sue them all" button in 2020, it seemed like the fight was just beginning. Apparently, however, the daggers had already been out for a while by then, and were sharp as can be. We learned today that a Google exec went so far as to suggest settling a disagreement with Epic by making a deal with Tencent to wrest control of the company away from founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. Tencent, the Chinese conglomerate that owns Riot Games and pieces of many other big developers, owns 40% of Epic Games, while Sweeney is the controlling shareholder. According to a court document filed by Epic today, an unnamed Google executive once suggested that if Epic didn't play nice, Google should talk to Tencent about buying some of its Epic shares "to get more control" of the Fortnite developer, or that it could even work with Tencent to take over Epic entirely. "Google recognized that Epic might not accept its offer," reads the document. "'As a potential alternative', a senior Google executive proposed that Google 'consider approaching Tencent', a company that owns a minority stake in Epic, 'to either (a) buy Epic shares from Tencent to get more control over Epic', or '(b) join up with Tencent to buy 100% of Epic'." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_MH Posted August 20, 2021 Share Posted August 20, 2021 I was just reading about this and had considered bumping the Epic vs Apple thread. It looks like Google also offered up search profits from phone manufacturers in exchange for them not including other app stores on their phones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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