Google has claimed that its legal dispute with Epic Games over the distribution of Fortnite is much different from Apple's fight and should be treated as such. Epic Games set both tech companies in its crosshairs last month when it attempted to undercut their profits on the sale of in-game Fortnite currency. This decision resulted in the game being swiftly pulled from both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store, and it has yet to reappear on either platform. Epic was clearly prepared for such a response, as it subsequently filed legal papers against both Apple and Google.
So far, Epic's feud with Apple has received much more publicity and attention than its dispute with Google. To protest what it views as an unfair monopolization of the iOS space, Epic launched a full-blown PR campaign against the company, complete with a frame-by-frame recreation of Apple's iconic 1984 ad. This endeavor drew so much attention that Ridley Scott, the original director of the commercial, even took notice and weighed in on the homage. Apple has been fighting back hard, severing Epic's developer accounts from iOS and threatening to remove support for the company's Unreal Engine, only backing down when a judge refused to allow it to do that.
But while Apple and Epic trade blows on such a public scale, Google has been working on its own case. As reported by Gamasutra, the company has been working to distance itself as much as possible from Apple's fight so that judges won't combine the two cases. Google has pointed out several key differences separating the Google Play store from its competitor's app store and how that might impact Epic's legal battle. Google points out that while Apple allows apps to be distributed exclusively through the App Store, Google allows the download of multiple third-party storefronts on Android devices, thus leading to a much different distribution environment than Apple's.
This claim is at odds with Epic said of Google back in April, when it claimed that software downloaded outside of the Google Play store was at a significant disadvantage when compared to content downloaded straight from Google's own market. Epic cited numerous business and technical maneuvers from Google, including repetitive security warnings afflicting third-party software, over-aggressive malware warnings, and security programs that outright block perfectly innocent programs.
Apple and Google have long been competitors in the mobile space, and it's unsurprising that Google would want to separate itself from its rival's fight, even when they share a common enemy. By emphasizing the freedom and availability of third-party distribution, Google is clearly looking to build a stronger case than Apple's in response to Epic Games' claims that both companies are anti-competition. Epic is clearly unimpressed, and it's unlikely that the development company will back down any time soon. These app store fights are a tremendous legal issue, and when they finally get decided in court, they could have major ramifications, not just for Fortnite but for the entire games industry, for years to come.
Source: Gamasutra