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Google agreed to pay $360 mln to Activision to stop competition, Epic Games alleges

M

M16

Member
Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google has struck deals with at least 24 big app developers to stop them from competing with its Play Store, including an agreement to pay Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O) about $360 million over three years, according to a court filing on Thursday.

Google also agreed in 2020 to pay Tencent Holdings Ltd's <0700.HK> Riot Games unit, which makes "League of Legends," $30 million over one year in a similar deal, the filing stated.
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Google has previously said the lawsuit is baseless and has taken business conversations out of context
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Epic's lawsuit alleged that Google knew signing with Activision "effectively ensured that (Activision) would abandon its plans to launch a competing app store
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www.reuters.com

Google struck $360-mln Activision deal to block rival app store, lawsuit says

Alphabet Inc's Google has struck at least 24 deals with big app developers to stop them from competing with its Play Store, including an agreement to pay Activision Blizzard Inc about $360 million over three years, according to a court filing on Thursday.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com


I think this plays well in microsoft's favor
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
odin-oh-shit.gif
 
Swift_Star

Swift_Star

Banned
This is amusing af. How can a multibillionaire company be so bad at competing to have to resort to such tactics? lmao
 
GHG

GHG

Member
Well now it's on Google to provide proof for what those payments were for. If there are no contracts that they can provide as evidence then they are in trouble.
 
feynoob

feynoob

Banned
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
SmokedMeat said:
You mean Epic, the company that actively pays to remove competition from getting games?
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Read this...
reksveks said:
Continuation of this story

https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/19/...rs-play-store-millions-epic-lawsuit-complaint

Basically more data.

I just want to say there are somethings that you can do when you have little to no marketshare that you can when you are a part of duopoly.

A bit more info here

http://www.fosspatents.com/2022/10/googles-project-hug-dealings-with.html?m=1
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Coloress_Kafka

Coloress_Kafka

Member
This is insane, Google did this to make the user experience of Android better instead of forcing users to go hunting around for their favorite apps. It’s not anticompetitive, it’s anti chaotic!
 
gothmog

gothmog

Gold Member
I don't understand what the issue is here? Basically Google did sponsorship deals where devs were showered with support and money to use their product. How is this any different than pretty much anyone in the universe that signs a sponsorship deal?
 
M

M16

Member
StreetsofBeige said:
Maybe I'm missing the point (I'm on a boring ass conference call on mute), but why is this revelation good for MS as some of you mentioned above?
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microsoft is building an alternative app store, and acquiring activision will allow them to seriously compete.
in the eyes of regulators, this acquisition will look like microsoft will increase competition and it would be for the better for consumers. especially with this revelation that google was actively paying developers to not compete with them in this space.
 
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R

reksveks

Member
StreetsofBeige said:
Maybe I'm missing the point (I'm on a boring ass conference call on mute), but why is this revelation good for MS as some of you mentioned above?
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M16 said:
microsoft is building an alternative app store, and acquiring activision will allow them to seriously compete.
in the eyes of regulators, this acquisition means more competition and better for consumers. especially with this revelation that google was actively paying developers to not compete with them in this space.
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Honestly this news wouldn't be new for regulators and may not have an impact cause its going to be different governmental bodies.

The EU are already looking into Google for their practices around the Play Store and they are already in theory going to be impacted by the DMA in the next couple of years.

This may just put some more pressure on that front.

feynoob said:
I dont know how you do it. But I want to say thank you. These stuff are very helpful here.
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No problem, I do just end up following rather weird topics and journalists. I forgot how I started to Florian Muller (author of Foss patent), think it was about FRAND licensing.
 
Magic Carpet

Magic Carpet

Member
Google will be doing like Apple next. Ban all other stores on device. Wait, they have to spend millions to do that instead.
Damn Apple be smart.
 
March Climber

March Climber

Member
M16 said:
microsoft is building an alternative app store, and acquiring activision will allow them to seriously compete.
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If you had told 2012 me who took a bet on buying a Windows Phone(whose brand was starting to slowly die out), that 2022 MS would buy a bunch of premiere gaming companies to try to resurrect a more powerful version of the MS mobile app store and successfully claim a foothold into that very mobile space that Windows Phone fought and died for... I would never, ever have believed you.
 
DaGwaphics

DaGwaphics

Member
IntentionalPun said:
So Google paid for store exclusivity... and Epic files another ridiculously hypocritical lawsuit lol
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You'd think that's how it would be written, as an exclusive deal for mobile distribution. Unless Epic has some ammo from internal conversations or something like that.
 
rushgore

rushgore

Member
I don’t understand shit maybe because I’m too sleepy but how are these two companies related? Activision was going to release a Google Play Store competitior on Android?

Why tf would they even do that??
 
TheThreadsThatBindUs

TheThreadsThatBindUs

Member
M16 said:
microsoft is building an alternative app store, and acquiring activision will allow them to seriously compete.
in the eyes of regulators, this acquisition will look like microsoft will increase competition and it would be for the better for consumers. especially with this revelation that google was actively paying developers to not compete with them in this space.
Click to expand...

Having a separate app store isn't really increasing competition when app pricing is determined by the app publishers, who publish the same game across all stores at the same pricing.
 
TransTrender

TransTrender

Gold Member
Holy shit that's some dirty money
Also give me a break "Project Hug."
I guess 'Project Moneyhat' or 'Project Dump Truck Full of Money' would be a little bit too on the nose and catch the eye of auditors or whistleblowers too easily.
 
T

Three

Member
feynoob said:
Wow.

T Three come here. Look at what google is doing.
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At the time Activison also signed a deal to use their servers and cloud infrastructure. Activision made the deal.
Not sure why Epic care unless they signed it for benefits too and wanted a legal out or were just raising issues about store competition in general. Epic have really been trying to stop others from getting a cut from mtxs but they are likely to fail yet again just like they did with Apple.
 
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T

Three

Member
Pelta88 said:
You think that Google's lawyers are so inept that they didn't cover all their bases, including Activision's potential acquisition?

react.gif
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This was known from 2020 in court documents. There is no coverup. This has only just been made public today in an unredacted copy of 2 yr old court documents for some reason, good timing by whoever made that public 😉.
 
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T

Three

Member
TheThreadsThatBindUs said:
Having a separate app store isn't really increasing competition when app pricing is determined by the app publishers, who publish the same game across all stores at the same pricing.
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It is because the stores would compete for lower cuts. It might ultimately not lower prices for the consumer and the studio/publisher get a bigger cut though.

Spyxos said:
I dont get it. Ms app store flopped years ago. Why are they so scared of another attempt?
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They were not scared of app stores like the MS store. They were scared of their earners not paying their 30% cut. They were competing to insure they release on the store by signing those deals and preventing a Fortnite situation (were the popular game can be installed on android outside of the google play store and any future mtx sales would have google not seeing a penny from it).
 
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Kagey K

Kagey K

Banned
March Climber said:
If you had told 2012 me who took a bet on buying a Windows Phone(whose brand was starting to slowly die out), that 2022 MS would buy a bunch of premiere gaming companies to try to resurrect a more powerful version of the MS mobile app store and successfully claim a foothold into that very mobile space that Windows Phone fought and died for... I would never, ever have believed you.
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If it means I get a new Lumia phone I'm all for it.

I will dump my Galaxy in a heartbeat.
 
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