Google has reportedly offered a USD 147 million deal to Epic Games- the game developer popularly known for the Fortnite game which is available on the Google Play store. The tech giant told the court that
Purnima Kochikar who is the Vice President for Play Partnerships at Google said in her testimony that the deal was approved and presented to Epic but was not accepted, believing The Verge reports.
Under the deal, the money would have been dispensed for over a three-year period of ‘incremental funding’ (which is ending in 2021) to Epic.
In a document where Google has been justifying the deal, writes that “Fortnite’s absence could result in $130 million (up to $250 million) direct revenue loss with Play” and further, there could be a “downstream impact of $550 million (up to $3.6 billion) potential revenue loss if broad contagion to other developers”.
In the testimony, Kochikar said, “We just wanted developers to choose Play.”
The Epic vs Google trial will start this Monday- dated 13 November.
Google has reportedly defended its 30 per cent cut on the transactions for apps from its Google Play store.
According to The Verge, Glenn Pomerantz, Google’s attorney has described the 30 per cent share as "a market fee, not a monopoly fee."
He stated to the court that "The service fee you see here is exactly the same fee that Epic pays in the Nintendo store, the Xbox store, the Steam store.”
On the other hand, Steve Allison, the head of the Epic Games Store, disputed that 30 per cent is the standard and commented: "All these stores charge a mega-developer like Epic the same 30 per cent fee.".
Furthermore, a lawsuit was filed when Google pulled Fortnite from the Play Store.
Epic has been arguing that Google's monopolistic control on its Google Play Store for Android smartphones has been violating both the state and federal antitrust laws.
ALSO READ: Taylor Swift becomes the Apple Music’s Artist of the Year 2023: Details
Inputs from IANS
