SAN FRANCISCO – Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney on Monday portrayed Google as a ruthless bully that inns to shady techniques to give protection to a predatory fee machine.
His portrayal got here in testimony in an antitrust trial desirous about Epic Games’ try to upend Google’s retailer for Android telephone apps.
Sweeney’s greater than two-hour stint at the witness stand in San Francisco got here not up to a week after Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended earlier than the 10-member jury the way in which his corporate runs its Play Store for Android apps. It’s one of two antitrust circumstances in opposition to Google, whose tech empire valued at $1.7 trillion is being threatened via prison assaults in search of to wreck it up.
Testimony in the Android phone app case is scheduled to complete earlier than Christmas.
The different case, focused on Google’s dominant search engine, ended ultimate week, however would possibly not be determined via a federal pass judgement on in Washington, D.C., till subsequent yr.
While Sweeney sought to depict Google as a grasping monopolist below wondering via his personal attorney, Google legal professional Jonathan Kravis attempted to turn the script. Much of Kravis’ his cross-examination seemed design to forged Sweeney as an government essentially in bypassing a long-standing fee machine to spice up his video game corporate’s income.
Epic, the maker of the preferred Fortnite game, alleges that Google has been engaged in unlawful price-gouging via amassing commissions starting from 15% to 30% on in-app virtual transactions. It’s very similar to a fee machine that Epic unsuccessfully challenged in a parallel lawsuit filed in opposition to Apple’s iPhone app retailer. Epic is interesting the result of the Apple trial to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Unlike Apple’s iPhone app retailer, Google already lets in pageant to the Play Store — one thing that Epic attempted to do when it determined to roll out Fortnite for Android telephones in 2018 by itself website online as a substitute of the Play Store.
In his Monday testimony, Sweeney recalled how Google known as him into its Mountain View, California, headquarters to take a look at to steer Epic to liberate Fortnite in the Play Store as a substitute. Sweeney mentioned Google attempted to lure him with a wide variety of monetary incentives, which he rejected.
“It seemed like a crooked arrangement,” Sweeney instructed the jury. “Google was proposing a series of side deals, which seemed designed to convince Epic not to compete against them.”
Sweeney’s look got here after Epic’s legal professionals had up to now displayed Google paperwork appearing Google had introduced video game maker Activision Blizzard a package deal valued at $360 million to drop a tentative plan to compete in opposition to the Play Store.
Google’s legal professionals introduced different paperwork that defined the deal would convey greater than $315 million in advantages to Activision.
After rejecting Google’s overtures, Epic attempted to distribute Fortnite for Android via its personal website online. But Sweeney testified that effort briefly changed into “a miserable procedure” because far fewer game players downloaded Fortnite for Android phones than anticipated. He attributed the disappointing response to Google machinations that made it a cumbersome process to do outside the Play Store and the use of pop-up “scare screens” warning of potential problems with the software.
“We realized Google was a difficult adversary and had the ability obstruct us,” Sweeney said.
Epic eventually released Fortnite in the Play Store in 2020 while it was hatching a secret plan to eventually circumvent the commission system by covertly slipping in an alternate payment option as part of what Sweeney dubbed “Project Liberty.”
The alternative payment option was released in August 2020 in revised Fortnite apps for both the Play Store and the iPhone app store, prompting both Apple and Google to block it within a few hours. Epic then filed antitrust lawsuits as part of what Sweeney framed as a crusade on behalf of all game makers as more play occurs on smartphones instead of consoles and PCs.
“It’s an issue I see as existential to all games, including Epic,” Sweeney said.
During his questioning of Sweeney, Google lawyer Kravis laid out the 30% commissions that Epic pays to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo for transactions on the PlayStation, Xbox and Switch consoles without complaint while still raking in billions of dollars in profit from those platforms.
In response to a question submitted by a juror, Sweeney disclosed that video game consoles and personal computers generated more than 90% of Epic’s revenue from in-app purchases during the period in 2020 when Fortnite was also in the iPhone app store and the Play Store.
Sweeney didn’t say why Epic hasn’t mounted a challenge to the 30% commissions charge on other game-playing devices besides smartphones, but he left no doubt about his goal in this trial.
“We want the jury to find Google has violated the law so the court can force Google to stop these practices,” Sweeney mentioned.