Sign up for GI Daily here to get the most important news straight to your inbox
Google has reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars on settlements with leading developers in an effort to dissuade them from launching their own app stores on Android.
The revelation comes from a newly unredacted copy of Epic’s 2020 lawsuit against Google, reviewed by Reuters.
According to the site, the documents showed Google paid Activision Blizzard $360 million over three years in such a deal, with another $30 million paid to Riot Games over one year.
In total, there were 24 notable deals between Google and big-name developers, including Ubisoft, Nintendo and non-gaming app providers.
The deals were part of “Project Hug,” which has been mentioned but never detailed in earlier versions of the lawsuit, and involved payments to post videos on YouTube, as well as credits for Google offerings such as advertising and cloud services.
According to Reuters, Google said the deals were to keep developers happy and reflect healthy competition.
However, the lawsuit claimed the deals were to block rival app stores; for example, Activision’s deal is said to have been made in January 2020, shortly after it told Google it was considering launching its own marketplace on Android.
Likewise, Riot’s partnership was allegedly designed to “stop their internal ‘app store’ efforts.”
Riot Games told Reuters it is currently reviewing the new filing, while Activision had no comment.
Epic’s lawsuit against Google was originally filed after the latter pulled Fortnite from its Play Store, an action it took after Epic Games circumvented payment rules and allowed players to buy virtual currency directly from the developer, bypassing the 30% cut from Google.
Google countersued, and the two face off in courts in various jurisdictions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
However, much of the focus has been on Epic’s almost identical dispute with Apple. The Fortnite company lost all but one of its arguments against Apple after a trial in California in May 2021.
The two sides are currently facing off in the appeals court as they try to overturn the judge’s ruling.