Epic v. Google: everything we learned in Fortnite court
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Riot had three “Google negotiation tradeoffs/priorities” in 2018:
1.) Web top up yes/no by region
2.) Promotional $ amount
3.) Exclusivity
Under exclusivity, there were two sticking points:
a.) ability to go APK in addition to Play
b.) ability to partner with Epic, Signtel
Riot’s CFO says nothing about the Google deal kept it from shipping an APK or putting the game on other stores. So why didn’t Riot ship an APK or put the game on Epic?
At the end of a long deposition, Sottosanti is no longer being categorical that there was no arrangement — we’re actually leaning slightly the opposite way. He doesn’t know for sure, and he says there was indeed a perception that Google wouldn’t want to do the deal if Riot bypassed the Play Store, even if he was not aware of any formal business agreement or informal understanding not to do so.
