A judge is concerned that Epic has softened its stance against Google over this previously undisclosed agreement
A U.S. court hearing has revealed that Fortnite maker Epic Games and Google have signed a secret deal worth nearly one billion dollars.
As first reported by The Verge, the matter concerns a proposed settlement between the two tech giants over Google’s illegal monopoly. For years, Epic has pursued legal action against Google (as well as rival Apple) over the control it exerts over its app marketplace. Ultimately, Epic chose to settle its lawsuit in November by loosening Android restrictions instead of California District Judge James Donato coming down on Google.
However, Donato, per The Verge, is now expressing concerns that Epic is pulling back on its legal action against Google due to a major, previously undisclosed agreement between the two companies. As Donato explained during a hearing, the pair have a secret deal valued at about US$800 million (about C$1.1 billion) that includes “joint product development, joint marketing commitment, joint partnerships.” The judge says this deal would see Epic “helping Google market Android” and Google “using Epic’s core technology.”
In the hearing, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said the deal would be related to the “metaverse,” but didn’t elaborate much further for “confidentiality” reasons. “Epic’s technology is used by many companies in the space Google is operating in to train their products, so the ability for Google to use the Unreal Engine more fullsome… sorry, I’m blowing this confidentiality,” Sweeney said.
However, the executive brushed off concerns of Epic softening its stance on Google because of the deal. “I don’t see anything crooked about Epic paying Google off to encourage much more robust competition than they’ve allowed in the past. We view this as a significant transfer of value from Epic to Google,” he said. According to Sweeney, Google also isn’t giving the Epic Games Store any kind of special treatment over their agreement.
Ultimately, it remains to be seen whether the settlement will be permitted to go through.
Source: The Verge
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