Fortnite Maker Says Google Paid Activision Millions Not to Launch Rival App Store

TL;DR

Fortnite developer Epic Games said Google paid the equivalent of $360 million to Call of Duty developer Activision Blizzard as part of a broad agreement that included a promise the gaming giant would not create a rival app store.Epic cited an agreement Google struck with Tencent, the Chinese company that owns League of Legends developer Riot Games, giving it about $30 million over one year.Both Google and Apple have historically required app makers to sell digital items like new looks for characters or subscriptions through payment processors that charged as much as a 30% commission.But Armin Zerza, now Activision Blizzard's finance chief, said in one of the court filings that the company chose not to launch a rival app store because of the risk of failure, in addition to costs for development and marketing.When asked about entering a deal with Google that "accomplished your objectives," Zerza said that the Activision Blizzard board approved a deal with the Android maker because it "created multi-hundred-million dollars of value for us across multiple ecosystems.""

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