Summary
- Epic Games led the charge against anticompetitive Play Store practices, claiming Google offered to pay $147 million to the developer if it would host Fortnite on its app store.
- After a court ruled in Epic’s favor late last year, a judge ordered Google to calculate the cost of meeting the gaming company’s demands, which it now estimates at $60–$140 million.
- Google claims it would require up to 16 months and $67 million to implement these changes, arguing it should collect fees from third-party stores.
Google has been questioned by many app developers about its Play Store practices, and Epic Games is perhaps best known for leading the charge. The Fortnite developer at one point revealed that Google attempted to pay it $147 million to host the game on the Play Store. After Epic declined, it went on to sue the Big Tech giant, drawing the attention of the US Department of Justice. Years later, Google has finally been brought to court under allegations of unfair business practices, stifling competition. Now, a judge has ordered the company to determine what it would take to open up the Play Store for developers like Epic Games.
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As explained by The Verge, Judge James Donato told Google to calculate how much it would cost to permit third-party app stores within its own Play Store. The company ultimately claimed that the reputational damage could not be quantified, but it said that at least $60 million would be required to carry out the technicalities, with the upper end of its anticipated costs being closer to $140 million. Creating the infrastructure for other Android app stores to exist within the Play Store was what Epic was originally requesting from Google.
An overview of Google’s cost breakdown
In its breakdown, Google claims that it would take up to 16 months and require $67 million to distribute third-party app stores within its own store. Between $27 million and $67 million would be necessary to allow third-party app stores access to apps already existent in the Google Play Store. Additionally, more than $2 million is going to be needed to let users transfer the ownership of their Android apps to third-party app stores. If Google was to proceed, it argues that it should be able to collect fees from these third-party stores, assuming the changes go into effect.
Just a few weeks ago, Google claimed that the Play Store changes requested by Epic Games were unnecessary. Wilson White, the company’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, specifically said that making these changes would negatively impact “privacy” and “security.” For now, it’s hard to envision Google backing down to anyone, but especially the Fortnite developer. Epic can now file a rebuttal based on Google’s recent estimates, and a final hearing date is set for August 14.