Google reportedly considered buying Epic Games to silence antitrust complaints

In 2018, Google and Epic Games started a years-old dispute Fortnite on the Play Store. Instead of distributing the game through Google Play, Epic decided that sideloading would be the way to get Fortnite on Android, avoiding the 30% reduction in Google sales. Epic was set to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google, and recently unsealed court documents spotted by The Verge reveal an interesting solution Google was proposing at the time: The company was considering buying Epic.

In the document, Epic repeatedly says that Google viewed Epic’s Play Store as a “contagion” that could disrupt Google’s Walled Garden, and Google “even considered buying some or all of Epic for quell this threat “. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney tweeted that this plan “was without our knowledge at the time,” indicating that Google never implemented an acquisition offer. In 2018, investors were giving Epic Games a valuation of $ 15 billion, so Google would have needed a pretty hefty bid. Today, Epic’s latest round of funding is estimated at $ 29 billion. Imagine how different things could be today if Google had a well-established game developer!

Epic’s antitrust complaints against Google revolve around security, features, and contractual barriers it claims Google is erecting around third-party app stores on Android. In order to load an app on Android (like a third party app store), users have to go through several spooky messages warning them that sideloading is dangerous. Less tech-savvy users may be turned back by the high friction installation process. And once installed, third-party app stores still can’t update background apps like Google Play.

When Epic launched its distribution plan Fortnite Outside of Google Play, a new document says “top Google Play officials have started contacting Epic” to warn them that life outside the Walled Garden won’t be easy:

An official reached out to Epic’s vice president and co-founder to gauge Epic’s interest in a special and, among other things, discussed the “experience of getting Fortnite on Android” via direct download. The manager’s call notes indicate that she viewed the direct download of Fortnite as “downright abysmal” and “a horrible experience,” and that Epic should “be concerned that most don’t get through the 15+ stages. “.

Later in the same document, Epic detailed the alleged content of a Google document titled “Response to Epic:”

In an internal document titled “Response to Epic,” a Google employee explained that the “installation frictions” associated with direct downloading were “not only a bad experience” for users, but that Google knew “from their own. data that it would limit considerably [Epic’s] achieve. “The document goes on to explain that”[f]uture [Fortnite] updates will be disputed regarding targeting, web update experience ”; that the direct download approach was “most associated with malicious applications”, which would be “incompatible with [Epic’s] brand / demographics ”; and that “[t]The approach will create significant confusion among users, as [Google Play] will always attract [billions] users who will search Fortnite and find themselves in dead ends who do not know how to solve.

The Google side of this argument looks like Android is way more open than iOS, which doesn’t allow sideloading at all. Google’s security statistics regularly show an 8x to 10x increase in malware on devices that allow sideloading, which is why the security warnings are in place. In the court document, Epic alleges that Google began disseminating these statistics to the media as an attack on Epic, but Google’s “Android Security Year in Review” series containing this information dates back to 2014, before Fortnite even existed.

Google is making a concession to Epic in the next version of Android 12, adding a new permission that allows third-party app stores to update apps in the background. The Android ecosystem’s indifference to shipping updates means that many users only get a new operating system when they buy a new phone, so it should be around four years before they get it. Android 12 does not reach the majority of users.

Google’s hardball tactics around the Play Store have also earned it antitrust lawsuits from 36 states. This lawsuit alleges that the company attempted to “preemptively cancel” competing app stores like the Samsung Galaxy Store. Today, the Galaxy Store is one of the largest Android distributors of Fortnite.