A newly discovered copy of a lawsuit has revealed that Google paid $360 Million to Activision Blizzard. According to the lawsuit, the payment was made to stop Activision Blizzard from building its own App Store. Further details have revealed that the lawsuit was filed by Fortnite developer Epic Games. The allegations have been denied by Google and Activision has also clarified that they have never been pressured by Google.
The lawsuit alleges that Google paid $360 Million to Activision Blizzard to not build its App Store
An unredacted copy of the corporate lawsuit has brought forward some surprising revelations. First filed by Epic Games in 2020 the lawsuit alleges that Activision Blizzard received 360 million dollars from Google. This payment was made to Activision Blizzard over three years to stop them from building their application store which would have acted as a competitor to Google’s Play Store.
According to the report by Reuters, this lawsuit has accused Google of being anti-competitive when it comes to its ever-growing mobile game marketplace. It has also been claimed that apart from Activision Blizzard other companies like Nintendo, Riot Games, and Ubisoft were allegedly paid by Google to gain an upper hand in the competition.
Google and Activision denied all the allegations and claimed they are false
Google has straightaway denied the claims saying that Epic’s claims are riddled with mischaracterizations. They have further said that the huge chunks of money were paid to “keep developers satisfied”. The executive vice president of corporate affairs at Activision Blizzard, Lulu Chen Meservey has echoed Google’s statement in a tweet saying that the claims are false.
Although both parties have denied the allegations, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if Google tries to persuade other developers to build a rival application store. Since another successful store might limit their expansion in the mobile gaming market. Only further investigations into the matter can confirm if Epic Games’ claims are true.
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