Google’s ‘Project Hug’ Cast by Epic Games as App Market Power Crusade

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Activision Blizzard Inc. accepted a package of incentives worth $360 million in 2020 to ensure its games launched on the Google Play store just as they did on rival platforms, jurors were told in an antitrust trial over Alphabet Inc.'s dominance in Android mobile apps.

As Epic Games Inc. puts on its case that Google Play app distribution and payment policies are anticompetitive, the Activision accord was presented Tuesday in San Francisco federal court as an example of the deals Google was making to keep developers in its orbit. Google stands to lose billions of dollars in Google Play revenue if Epic wins a ruling that upends the app store's policies.

Epic's lawyer Lauren Moskowitz presented internal documents and grilled a former Google Play executive about how the deals were aimed at addressing “noise” over the standard 30% revenue cut it took from developers and increasing competition from rival app stores.

Epic, maker of the popular Fortnite game, is trying to show that Google was so concerned about developers releasing games independently that it was willing to spend millions to persuade them to stick with Google Play — including an $18 million agreement it reached with Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s Riot Games in 2020.

‘Project Hug'

Inside Google this campaign was code-named “Project Hug,” but a lawyer for Epic argued at the start of the trial Monday that the technology giant was using “bribe or block” tactics to stymie competition in violation of federal antitrust law.

Google has defended its actions as above-board, arguing that offering developers certain incentives to launch their apps on Google Play is how the store competes with Apple's App Store, in addition to the Samsung Galaxy Store and Amazon Appstore.

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