Activision dismissed as "nonsense" Epic Games' claim that Google paid it $360 million in exchange for an agreement not to launch a mobile app store that would compete with Google Play. The allegations were revealed in an unredacted complaint filed earlier this week as part of Epic's ongoing lawsuit against Google, which Epic claims had a similar agreement in place with League of Legends studio Riot Games.

Epic sued Google in August 2020, the same day it sued Apple for "monopolistic practices" in its App Store, on essentially the same grounds (opens in new tab): that Google requires Play Store developers to use its in-app billing system to require them to process payments and collect 30% of the amount purchased through the storefront.

This litigation has been going on for some time now and has been overshadowed by the fight between Epic and Apple. However, there has been a very interesting development on the Google front: Epic claims that Google has entered into multiple "anti-competitive agreements" with other developers who were considering either developing competing mobile app stores or stand-alone releases of their products.

"Some of these agreements were intended to, and did, prevent developers from launching competing app stores.

"Other agreements were intended to, and did, unlawfully prevent developers from making their Android apps and other unique content available outside of Google Play.

According to the complaint filed, Activision was considering its own mobile distribution platform, which it anticipated would have "better economics" than Google Play, but dropped that idea after reaching the "Project Hug" agreement with Google. Google paid Activision $360 million over three years and Activision "abandoned plans to launch a competing Android app store." Also, according to Epic's lawsuit, Riot Games was considering a similar independent path for League of Legends, but instead of abandoning its plans, it signed another "eight-figure" deal with Google.

Google has signed Project Hug agreements with a number of game companies, including Namco Bandai, Electronic Arts, NCSoft, NetEase, Nexon, Nintendo, Square Enix, Tencent, and Ubisoft (later called the "App and Games Velocity Program) with a number of game companies, including NetEase, Nexon, Nintendo, Tencent, and Ubisoft. However, there are no specific allegations that these deals were made to prevent the launch of competing app stores or standalone game releases.

Epic initially filed a complaint regarding Project Hug in August 2021, but at that time did not disclose the specific amounts or the names of the companies involved. In response, Google acknowledged the existence of the program, but denied that it was intended to block competition.

"Google Play competes with other app stores on Android devices and on rival operating systems for developers' attention and business," a representative told The Verge in 2021. 'We've long had programs in place to help best-in-class developers reach more customers through Google Play with enhanced resources and investments. These programs are a testament to healthy competition between operating systems and app stores, and will greatly benefit developers."

In response to this new filing, Activision also denied allegations of a quid pro quo deal to halt its own mobile store plans.

"Epic's allegations are nonsense," Activision representatives said in a statement sent to PC Gamer. We can confirm that Google has never asked us, pressured us, or made us agree not to compete with Google Play." "

Generally speaking, companies are notorious for not liking meaningful competition very much, but this Epic claim may be hard to prove; Activision tried to go its own way a few years ago with Battle.net (open in new tab), but eventually returned to Steam ( Open in new tab); other publishers, including Electroni (open in new tab)c Arts, have come to the same conclusion. In other words, it is not difficult to believe that Activision abandoned its plans for a stand-alone mobile app not because of the payoff, but because it was not economically worth it.

It is also worth noting that Google, unlike Apple, already allows other storefronts on Android devices. For example, Microsoft recently revealed plans to build a mobile Xbox store (opens in new tab).

Riot Games declined to comment on Epic's allegations. We have contacted Google for more information and will update if we hear back.