Google looked to pay Activision, others to stop app store rivals, Epic Games says
Tomohiro Ohsumi

A new detail from Epic Games' 2020 lawsuit against Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) over its Android and Play Store policies accuses Google of agreeing to pay $360M to Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) in order to block development of a competing store.
A court filing on Thursday offered a newly unredacted copy of the lawsuit, Reuters reports, revealing that Epic (maker of hit game Fortnite) accused Google of striking such deals with at least 24 big app developers in order to stop them from forming a competitive alternative to the Play Store.
Epic Games is majority owned by founder Tim Sweeney, though Tencent (OTCPK:TCEHY) has a 40% stake, and Sony (SONY) owns about 4.9%.
Sweeney took on Google and Apple (AAPL) in 2020 over disputes tied to whether apps offering alternative in-app payment systems could remain available in their app stores. And Epic runs a game store on personal computers, similar to Steam as a distribution site for games.
Activision Blizzard is currently pursuing an acquisition by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).
"But for Appleâs illegal restraints, Epic would provide a competing app store on iOS devices, which would allow iOS users to download apps in an innovative, curated store and would provide users the choice to use Epicâs or another third-partyâs in-app payment processing tool," Epic said when it sued Apple in summer 2020.
âWe must all choose to fight a painful battle now, or accept an all-powerful middleman with unbounded ambition to extract tribute and limit innovation in the decades to come,â Sweeney said as Epic sued Google.