Epic alleges Google paid $360 million to keep Activision from launching its own app store - The Verge

Activision Blizzard and Riot Games at one point told Google they might launch their own mobile app stores, according to new documents filed in Epic’s antitrust lawsuit against the search giant.

In the deposition, the witness says that Riot Games told Google it was considering launching a competing Android app store.

But Epic, in a newly amended complaint filed Thursday, alleges Project Hug deals are designed to “prevent the developer from opening a competing store or otherwise distributing its apps outside of the Google Play Store.”.

(Epic eventually brought Fortnite to the Play Store in 2020, but it was removed a few months later.) But based on the new documents, it seems Activision and Riot were thinking of striking out on their own.

Google said that programs like Project Hug don’t prevent developers from creating their own app stores, and Activision said that Google didn’t make them agree not to compete with Google Play.