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| Google paid a lot to keep game developers |
Google has paid game developers hundreds of millions of dollars in rewards for keeping their games on the Play Store. This is a new unresolved and unresolved lawsuit that Epic Games has brought in an antitrust lawsuit against the search giant's complaints.
The program was called Project Hug, or the newer Apps and Games Velocity.
The Android version of the game Fortnite was first released in 2018. Epic Games took an unusual step and released it exclusively outside the Google Play Store.
Instead, players have to download the installer directly from the company's website, allowing the company to bypass the search giant's 30% commission. However, the price is that the installation process is not very user friendly.
Epic Games lowered the restrictions and released Fortnite on the Google Play Store in April 2020.
The Epic Games complaint said Google was concerned about other developers' ideas about going down the Fortnite path. So much so that he started a program called Project Hug to make sure developers stick to the Play Store.
According to the complaint, the Google Play team's 2019 financial report raised concerns that Epic Games would reach an agreement with manufacturers like Samsung to preinstall its competitors' stores. He promised to take lower commissions to earn developers. This is a strategy that Epic Games uses in their Store version on PC.
The search giant also fears that the move will help Android users move to other alternative stores.
Overall, the team estimates that the Epic Games Store on Android could cost Google between $350 billion and $1.4 billion by 2022.
When other app stores like Amazon or Samsung draw attention to themselves with Epic Games. These losses could drop from $1.1 billion to $6 billion.
Google paid a lot to keep game developers
Android executives have stated in internal documents that Project Hug aims to reduce the impact of Epic Games. As a plan to increase sales through additional promotions for large developers and games. Including companies like Tencent.
In fact, this means spending hundreds of millions of dollars on secret deals with more than 20 major developers. The company believes it is most likely infected with Epic Games.
Internal company documents show this, although several Target developers have inquired about revenue sharing. But Project Hug has been very successful.
By the end of 2020. The search giant has signed agreements with most of Project Hug's targets. Especially Activision Blizzard. Register it in the Google Play Store.
"Google Play competes with app stores and other competing operating systems to attract developers and commercial interests," a company spokesperson said.
“We have always had plans to provide top developers with improved resources and investments, and to help them reach more customers through Google Play.” These programs are a sign of healthy competition between the operating system and application memory. This is also very useful for developers.