Epic Games and Google have been entangled in a lawsuit since August 2020, and they have finally settled. The lawsuit centered around the exclusive processing system for the Play Store, allowing Google to hold a monopoly on Android’s app store and to charge up to 30% in transaction fees. The District Court of the Northern District of California issued an injunction during the proceeding, which forced Google to allow third-party rival app stores on Android.
That was back in September, but today, a joint filing between Google and Epic changes things further. The agreement states that Google will reduce its standard fee to 20% or 9%, depending on the type of transaction. It will also allow alternative app stores on the next version of Android. Sameer Samat, president of the Android Ecosystem, said the following on Twitter/X:
What This Means For Sports Games, Microtransactions, And Revenue
There has been a lot of discussion this year surrounding store monopolies. Just a few days ago, 72% of devs said that Steam has a strong monopoly on PC games, according to an industry study. Similar to the Google v Epic lawsuit, Apple also lost a UK Antitrust case relating to “unfair” App Store commission fees. These exorbitant fees contribute to high prices on games and to in-app purchases. Apple faces up to £1.5 billion in damages as a result of losing its case, and according to The Register, Google might also lose £1 billion if it loses a similar case in the UK.
Let’s circle back to the agreement between Google and Epic. While the deal mainly focuses on developer economics, it will have ripple effects on how mobile sports games sell card packs, coins, and other microtransactions. Titles like FIFA Mobile and NBA 2K Mobile currently route all purchases through Google Play’s billing system — meaning Google takes up to a 30% cut.
With the reduction in Play Store fees, publishers may no longer need to inflate the price of in-game currency to maintain margins. But let’s be honest, that likely won’t be the case. The agreement also mentions that Google has to allow alternative billing systems, where Google will either take a lower cut or none at all. So, developers will likely push those alternative systems to you when you go to buy something, and they can also ensure that prices are cheaper if you go that route.
For now, all of this is speculation, but this is certainly an exciting development in the mobile games industry. It will be interesting to see just how much of a positive effect this has for developers.
