Google has reportedly intended to buy the company Epic Games with the aim of bringing Fortnite to the Android Play Store. This information was obtained from an Epic vs Google court document that was publicly distributed.

Reporting from The Verge, Epic quotes from the document that Google feels threatened by Epic’s plans to get around the Google Play Store commission. Even Google even called the Epic plan an “infectious disease”.

Epic Games Response

Epic Games said, “the Google company is deliberately trying to achieve their monopoly and continue to survive.” According to Epic, Google uses its influence, power, and money to persuade other companies to sign non-competitive agreements so as to strengthen its monopoly.

Unfortunately, details regarding Google’s internal discussions on this matter remain classified and so far Google has never contacted Epic with such an offer. This was also conveyed by the Co-Founder and CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, via his Twitter account.

Previously, Epic also stated in its court documents that one of the Google Play managers had contacted Epic regarding the game Fortnite. The reason is, the manager said that downloading Fortnite on an Android phone without going through the Google Play Store (called sideloading) is a very bad thing because it has to go through more than 15 steps. On the other hand, downloading apps through the Play Store only takes 2 steps.

In the end, Epic stated that Google actually understood that the restrictions placed on sideloading were an attempt to protect Google’s monopoly on app distribution and limit the ability of developers to distribute their own apps.

In an internal document entitled Response to Epic, one Google employee explained that the company is aware that sideloading greatly limits Epic’s reach because future Fortnite updates can only be obtained through sideloading which has the potential to bring various viruses to the cellphone and Google Play users will be confused about what to do with it. search for Fortnite games in the digital store.

Epic itself has sued the Google company since mid-2020 where Epic alleges that Google applies uncompetitive policies to other companies. Apart from Epic, many other companies are also suing Google for its monopoly efforts through the Android platform that restricts third-party app stores and prevents side loading.

Google has also removed several redactions in the state complaint, most of which have to do with internal descriptions of how Android works. In a 2017 presentation on Amazon’s App Store, for example, Google apparently noted that “if we’re honest, we’ll admit that most users and developers don’t consciously ‘choose’ them to use the defaults.” And in 2019, Apple and Android were referred to as “a new closed internet ecosystem” that “centralizes content distribution through app stores… [and] payments through app store services” — although the broader context of that statement is unclear.

Google has strongly denied the claims in both lawsuits. “The open Android ecosystem allows developers to distribute apps through multiple app stores. For game developers who choose to use the Play Store, we have a consistent policy that is fair to developers and keeps the store safe for users,” he said in an earlier comment about Epic’s amendment filing. “While Fortnite remains available on Android, we can no longer make it available on Play because it violates our policies. We will continue to defend ourselves against these selfless claims.”

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Epic filed lawsuits against Apple and Google last year after introducing a new Fortnite payment system that circumvents their payment systems and in-app purchase commissions, prompting both companies to remove Fortnite from their mobile stores. (Fortnite is still available on Android devices via sideloading.) Epic’s case against Apple went to trial in May and is currently awaiting a court ruling.

As we know that Google is one of the biggest technology companies in the world. With every innovation in each of its products, it’s no wonder that Google also provides hidden games that can be accessed and played by its site visitors from various parts of the world.

For most people, Google is just a search engine site. With various features including image search, voice search, calculator, language translator, temperature check, and so on. But it is very rare for Google users to be aware of the existence of the hidden game belonging to the ruler of the search engine.