Current:Home > ScamsCEO of Fortnite game maker casts Google as a ‘crooked’ bully in testimony during Android app trial -Visionary Growth Labs
CEO of Fortnite game maker casts Google as a ‘crooked’ bully in testimony during Android app trial
View
Date:2025-04-19 11:59:33
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney on Monday portrayed Google as a ruthless bully that resorts to shady tactics to protect a predatory payment system.
His portrayal came in testimony in an antitrust trial focused on Epic Games’ attempt to upend Google’s store for Android phone apps.
Sweeney’s more than two-hour stint on the witness stand in San Francisco came less than a week after Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended before the 10-member jury the way his company runs its Play Store for Android apps. It’s one of two antitrust cases against Google, whose tech empire valued at $1.7 trillion is being threatened by legal attacks seeking to break it up.
Testimony in the Android phone app case is scheduled to finish before Christmas.
The other case, focused on Google’s dominant search engine, ended last week, but won’t be decided by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., until next year.
While Sweeney sought to depict Google as a greedy monopolist under questioning by his own lawyer, Google attorney Jonathan Kravis tried to flip the script. Much of Kravis’ his cross-examination appeared design to cast Sweeney as an executive primarily interested in bypassing a long-standing commission system to boost his video game company’s profits.
Epic, the maker of the popular Fortnite game, alleges that Google has been engaged in illegal price-gouging by collecting commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on in-app digital transactions. It’s similar to a payment system that Epic unsuccessfully challenged in a parallel lawsuit filed against Apple’s iPhone app store. Epic is appealing the outcome of the Apple trial to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Unlike Apple’s iPhone app store, Google already allows competition to the Play Store — something that Epic tried to do when it decided to roll out Fortnite for Android phones in 2018 on its own website instead of the Play Store.
In his Monday testimony, Sweeney recalled how Google called him into its Mountain View, California, headquarters to try to persuade Epic to release Fortnite in the Play Store instead. Sweeney said Google tried to entice him with a wide range of financial incentives, which he rejected.
“It seemed like a crooked arrangement,” Sweeney told the jury. “Google was proposing a series of side deals, which seemed designed to convince Epic not to compete against them.”
Sweeney’s appearance came after Epic’s lawyers had previously displayed Google documents showing Google had offered video game maker Activision Blizzard a package valued at $360 million to drop a tentative plan to compete against the Play Store.
Google’s lawyers presented other documents that outlined the deal would bring more than $315 million in benefits to Activision.
After rejecting Google’s overtures, Epic tried to distribute Fortnite for Android through its own website. But Sweeney testified that effort quickly turned into “a depressing process” 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 said.
veryGood! (1166)
Related
- John Galliano out at Maison Margiela, capping year of fashion designer musical chairs
- Unprecedented Webb telescope image reveals new feature in famous supernova
- Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers says Giants' Jihad Ward is 'making (expletive) up'
- Jacksonville shooting prompts anger, empathy from Buffalo to Charleston
- Spooky or not? Some Choa Chu Kang residents say community garden resembles cemetery
- Russia says it thwarted attacks on Crimea bridge, which was briefly closed for a third time
- Kris Jenner Packs on the PDA With Corey Gamble During Magical Summer Vacation
- Texas A&M freshman WR Micah Tease suspended indefinitely after drug arrest
- Intel's stock did something it hasn't done since 2022
- Jacksonville shooting prompts anger, empathy from Buffalo to Charleston
Ranking
- Former longtime South Carolina congressman John Spratt dies at 82
- Entrance to Burning Man in Nevada closed due to flooding. Festivalgoers urged to shelter in place
- How one man fought a patent war over turmeric
- Students criticize the University of North Carolina’s response to an active shooter emergency
- From family road trips to travel woes: Americans are navigating skyrocketing holiday costs
- Albuquerque police arrest man in 3 shooting deaths during apparent drug deal
- Rare painting bought for $4 at a thrift store may fetch a quarter million at auction
- Florida flamingos spotted in unusual places after Idalia: 'Where are (they) going?'
Recommendation
A White House order claims to end 'censorship.' What does that mean?
Shooting at Louisiana high school football game kills 1 person and wounds another, police say
Missing South Carolina woman may have met with Gilgo Beach murders suspect, authorities say
New Research Shows Direct Link Between Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Polar Bear Decline
Kylie Jenner Shows Off Sweet Notes From Nieces Dream Kardashian & Chicago West
Anderson Cooper talks with Kelly Ripa about 'truly mortifying' Madonna concert experience
Russia-North Korea arms negotiations actively advancing, White House says
'Howdy Doody': Video shows Nebraska man driving with huge bull in passenger seat