Google offered Epic Games $147 mln to launch Fortnite on Play Store

Google confirmed in court that Epic Games was offered a staggering $147 million for the launch of its FPS game Fortnite on Android’s Google Play Store.

Purnima Kochikar, Google’s VP of Play partnership, confirmed that a $147 million payout spread over three years as incremental funding until 2021, was proposed to launch the game but was turned down by Epic Games.

The intention was to prevent the potential “contagion” of popular applications bypassing Android’s Google Play Store and safeguarding Google’s substantial in-app purchase revenue.

Epic Games launched its game Fortnite on Android in 2018 directly through its website, bypassing Play Store, which allowed it to sell Fortnite’s in-game currency, V-Bucks, without paying Google its commission. However, in 2020, challenges like security pop-ups led Epic to relent and list Fortnite on the Play Store.

During an ongoing trial, it was revealed by the internal document that Epic Games contended its initial decision to bypass the Google Play Store in 2018.

Google allegedly feared a “contagion risk” if other major game developers (including Blizzard, Valve, Sony, and Nintendo) followed Epic’s lead, prompting attempts to prevent this by offering incentives or even considering the purchase of Epic.

Testimonies indicated Google’s concerns about potential revenue losses, projecting a direct shortfall of $130 to $250 million and then broader downstream losses of up to $3.6 billion if top game developers defected from play.

Epic posited these actions as evidence of an unlawful Play Store mas an unlawful monopoly, adding complexity to the case.