More information has been revealed during Epic Games' antitrust lawsuit against Google, and this time it concerns Google reportedly trying to bribe developers into sticking with the Play Store.
A newly unredacted complaint brought to light during the lawsuit alleges that Google instituted a program, called “Project Hug”, to quietly pay game developers hundreds of millions of dollars as an incentive to keep their games and apps on the Play Store.
This is allegedly a reaction to Epic Games releasing Fortnite exclusively outside of the Google Play Store when it launched three years ago. Those using the Play Store had to take an unusual method to get the game on their device by downloading an installer directly from Epic’s website or using a preinstalled “Play Fortnite” app. At the time this seemed like an odd move on Epic’s part, but seeing how Google takes a sizable 30% of a game’s profit, and Fortnite was insanely popular at the time, it made sense. Of course, the exclusivity only lasted for 18 months and Fortnite was added to the Play Store in April of last year.
Related: US Senate Targets Apple And Google's Microtransaction Systems In New Bill
However, Epic is now saying that the incident forced Google to become so concerned with the idea of losing that 30% profit by having other developers follow Epic’s lead, that it created the “Project Hug” or “Apps and Games Velocity Program” to ensure developers continued to use the Play Store.
The program would offer extra promotion to top developers and games, like the companies within the Tencent portfolio. As Android executives revealed through released internal documents, this “extra love” meant spending “hundreds of millions of dollars in secret deals with over 20 top developers” to stop developers from doing something like what Epic did with Fortnite. Documents obtained from Google reveal that the program was mostly a success, with Google signing deals with most of those developers targeted by “Project Hug” to keep them on the Google Play Store.
However, Google feels that this tactic of business is not illegal or even uncommon in the industry. Speaking with The Verge, a Google spokesperson stated that, “We’ve long had programs in place that support best-in-class developers with enhanced resources and investments to help them reach more customers across Google Play. These programs are a sign of healthy competition between operating systems and app stores and benefit developers tremendously.”
Next: Fortnite: Impostors Is A Classic Case Of Punching Down
