Epic Games, which is an American video game and software developer company over the past has faced a lot of issues where it has been sidelined by many bigger firms like Apple and Google. The legal fight that was ongoing between Epic Games and Apple was covered by many bloggers and newspapers and surfaced on the internet for quite a long time.
Epic Games was corner stoned by Apple and now Google too is on its way to do the same. Google over the past few days has been mistreating Fortnite, which has been developed by Epic Games. Epic Games thus claimed that Google has been indulging in monopolistic practices against Fortnite and wants to remove the game from Play Store. Google wants to keep its Play Store ecosystem clean and does not want Fortnite to ruin it. A news article has surfaced claiming that Google can do anything to keep Fortnite out of the Play Store.
The main reason why Google has been indulged in such ferocious activities is its inner desire to actually buy some or all of Epic Games. This is due to the popularity of Epic Games which is the biggest publisher and developer of games. Fortnite is loved by many users even though it occupies just a small space of Epic Games still it generates a considerable amount of revenue for the company. It thus confirms Google’s activities and practices against the video game company.
People who would generally demand evidence for such claims need not worry as we do have evidence for the same. The court in which the legal investigation was done found out that Google earlier had plans to buy Epic Games either wholly or some part of it. All that Google has been doing is out of desperation which will compel Epic Games to partner with Google at last. This was revealed by the court itself when they went through some of Google’s old documents.
Epic Games was completely unaware of this and came to know about it when the documents resurfaced in the court.
Google used a different route to put the company down, it pointed out the sideloading plans of the game for Android users. Both Epic Games and Fortnite made plans to include sideloading which refers to the process of downloading and installing apps onto a mobile device from an unofficial source. The source over here would be Epic Games which is quite a safe source. This particular plan could be a tough competition for Google Play. Thus Google expressed that this feature gives an awful experience and took more than 15 steps to actually download a single app on your device which Google Store does at a much faster rate. Google actually had the idea that such a comment would reduce Fortnite’s reach and affect sales. Google has been practicing this same technique for years against apps that wish to distribute outside the Google Store.
Google considers this feature to be infectious and dangerous and thus wants to shut it down completely. Google even attempted to bring in certain special offers for all users and fans of Fortnite where they were provided with amazing deals. This was all done to bring the launch of Fortnite exclusive to the Play Store. Doing this led to a 30% reduction in the tax that Google takes from apps and in-app purchases. Even though it made losses, Google still wanted Fortnite on the Play Store.
The particular practice has put Google at risk as Epic Games has made a legal complaint where it clearly demonstrated Google’s attempt to make a monopoly and rule the market.
