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| Google and Tencent discuss collaborating against Epic Games |
Epic Games said Google is trying to look into the possibility of buying Tencent's stake in the game developer to prevent it from bypassing the Google Play Store and launching Fortnite on Android.
A year ago, a lawsuit brought by Epic Games against Google said it knew the game maker was a threat to the Google Play Store.
Epic Games claimed that Tencent's plan was formulated at the search giant's board meeting in 2018.
An executive at the search giant suggested that the company contact Tencent, which owns a minority stake in Epic Games, buy Epic Games shares from Tencent to gain more control over Epic Games, or partner with Tencent for 100% of Epic. games.
Tencent is one of the largest game developers and publishers in the world. He owns a large number of shares in the company. In 2012, it acquired 40% of Epic Games. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, is still in control of the company.
The alleged takeover plan was first revealed this month when a partially redacted version of the lawsuit was taken to court.
"As previously reported, the lawsuit at Epic Games is baseless and misinterprets our business conversations," a spokesperson for the search giant said in a statement. Android gives developers and consumers more choices.
Epic Games compete with Google and Apple for the commissions that App Store developers are asking for.
Google and Tencent discuss collaborating against Epic Games
In July 2018, Google executives, including Alphabet's chief financial officer, considered a partnership with Epic Games worth $208 million in three years.
They are also considering reducing the commission they charge Epic Games. Epic Games turned down a special contract from Google. Instead, it chose to distribute Fortnite for Android through its website and partnership with Samsung.
Epic Games said Google executives came up with a plan to conduct a $208 million in-person transaction to persuade the company to launch Fortnite through Google Play.
The search giant plans to offer Epic Games a 25% discount commission. In return, the developers charge a standard commission of 30%. It's about giving Epic Games an extra revenue share.
Epic Games said: When the search giant realized that Epic Games may not agree to such a deal. I thought about calling Tencent.
Other unaddressed parts of the Epic Games complaint reveal more new details. Including the meeting hosted by Apple and Google in 2018 to discuss increasing search revenue growth. The search giant is pushing Apple to make its search the default search engine on your iPhone Safari.
After the meeting, an Apple representative suggested to a senior Google member that the two companies work as a team. This is to counter Epic Games' efforts to disable commission rates for app stores and restrict alternative app stores.