Tim Sweeney accused Google Play of illegally distributing income with IAP
Epic Games and Google again did not agree on a fundamental issue. “Epics” want to release Fortnite on Google Play, but not give the store 30% of the revenue. The developer called this distribution of shares “illegal”.
The Android version of Fornite is distributed outside Google Play, because the “epics” are not satisfied with the economic model of this store. But, according to 9to5Google, the developer will still try to negotiate with Google about the release of the battle royale. Provided that Google reduces their commission.
The position of the “epics”
According to the head of Epic Games Tim Sweeney, the Internet giant has no right to charge the developer 30%. Google allegedly requires that all IAPs be conducted through Google’s own payment service. But there is no such rule in the Agreement on the distribution of products on Google Play, Sweeney noted.
We believe that for a platform whose market share exceeds 50%, such a binding to a mandatory payment service with a 30% commission is illegal.
Head of Epic Games
The head of “epics” made a reservation that the developer does not require “special treatment” and does not try to bargain. “We are rather waiting for changes in the practice of distributing shares throughout the mobile industry,” he said. — We ourselves have a large PC store (Epic Games Store) and a payment service, but we do not force developers to use our payment ecosystem.”
By the way, previously only the payment service from Epics was allowed in EGS, but last week the restriction was lifted.
Google’s position
Google reacted to Sweeney’s words quite expectedly:
Any developer can publish their game on Google Play, but under the same conditions as everyone else.
Recall that Epic Games criticized the Google Play business model last year.
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